Encounters
by Exile Wrath
Summary: Kanda Yuu is a sheltered Prince that dreams of life outside the walls. One day, he escapes and meets Allen, the white-haired maid of General Marian Cross. Every night, he'll sneak out to see her again. Who would've guessed? AU Fem!AllenxKanda
1. Escape

**Exile: Oh YAY! Another Yullen fic. This one's Kandax FEM!Allen. Tri-cowritten with the awesome Jenniferee and fanimeLex ^. ^ Axis Powers Hetalia reference, anyone? Two OCs, but they are there for comedy-relief and plot-progression purposes. I did the Omake!**

**Jenniferee: HAHAS HI THERE! :D Uhm hopefully some of you guys know who I am uh –awkward- BUT ANYWAY I had tons of fun writing this. And it's my first cowritten work, and my first written work using OCs. So please excuse errors from around the middle (because that's me). Okay I shouldn't hog space with my words so ON TO fanimeLex's COMMENTARY! –applause-**

**(insert fanimeLex's AN here)**

_**Lex: **__Thanks for the introduction Jenniferee and Exile. -bows- This is __also my first co-written story. Well, I'm not sure how many of you have read my story "__What Starts In the Summer"__ but I hope you like it so far, apologies for not updating. :3 Exile convinced me (more like persuaded me and had epic ideas) to co-write in th__is.__Towards the end, if I fail, don't blame the other two, I take full responsibility. I never thought I would write the disclaimer like this XD_

**Disclaimer: ****WE DO NOT OWN**** D. GRAY -MAN IN ****ANY WAY.**

_**~Lex~**_

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><p><span>EncountErs<span>

Chapter 1: Escape

"Where is that guy?" Rei muttered nervously, kicking around the bushes where her charge usually hid. "Kanda, if you don't come out I will confiscate Mugen. Until you marry."

"I'm up here, baka." Prince Kanda Yuu sneered down from his perch on a tree branch.

"Are you trying to get over the wall again?" Rei snapped, "Tiedoll would kill me if you go out."

"I don't care, crossdresser." he replied with superiority. There was a loud crack as his bodyguard's reason snapped and she punched the tree trunk, shaking the plant hard enough for Kanda to lose his balance and fall in the bushes.

"What the fuck?"

"If you don't care whether your bodyguard lives or dies, then I don't give a damn whether you fall a couple of feet. And I bet you would never get over that wall. Actually… why do you want to go out so badly?", was her curious response. Kanda lifted an elegantly arched eyebrow and stepped out of the shrubs, brushing the dirt off. Rei found herself looking down Mugen's blade the moment he was out of the bushes.

"That was at least 15 fucking feet." The prince snarled, starting a sequence of attacks which Rei dodged. "And I have no reason to tell you of all people that. Crossdresser."

Kanda Yuu, Crown Prince of the country of Innocence, long cobalt hair and eyes, 24 years old and an excellent swordsman. Has lived in palace for as long as he can remember. Stubborn and hates being treated like a child, which he is far from.

Her reason snapped once again at the insult. "En garde!" was the reply, as she drew her own weapons and the two started sparring. The gardens were immediately evacuated of all sane palace servants and the refugees hid inside the palace, looking down at the ferocious everyday occurring battle between Kanda, and his equally stubborn bodyguard Rei.

Ryuukei Hitoride, Kanda's bodyguard, short black hair and eyes, 22 years old and cross-dresses as a male to use "male rights" in an age where men and women are not on equal footing. All around her knows and doesn't truly care, except make fun of her every now and then.

"They're so lively, aren't they Marie?" King Tiedoll asked his adopted son Noise Marie. The large blind man gave a smile and nodded, his ears easily picking up the sound of the vicious fight. "But I worry about how many times Yuu-kun has tried to scale the walls. It's dangerous. Oh, they're finally finished."

"OWOWOWOWOW YOU'RE GOING TO FUCKING PULL MY FUCKING ARM OFF. LET GO!" was Kanda's roars as he struggled in vain to get out of the arm lock his bodyguard currently had him in. Said person smirked evilly and freed her charge, picking up Mugen a few feet away where she had miraculously managed to disarm Kanda.

"21 to 20! My win." She said triumphantly, sheathing her Kamas and Mugen. "So now you have to explain why in the world you want to escape so badly." Kanda sneered at her, grabbing Mugen and fixing his hair tie.

"Yes, yes, Yuu-kun. I'd like to know as well." Tiedoll said, startling the two. "Aren't you happy here?"

"Well, why do I have to be stuck in the damn palace the whole day?" the teen scowled. "It's fucking boring."

"For your safety, Yuu-kun!" the High King exclaimed, earning hard stares from the duo. "What?"

"HE? HE needs SAFETY?" Rei yelped, jabbing a finger in Kanda's direction. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"For once I agree. I don't even need a bodyguard! I'm a light sleeper and I've bested the greatest assassins and martial artists in the world!" Kanda added indignantly.

"But the world outside the walls…is dangerous!" Tiedoll replied. Rei facepalmed and dragged a protesting Kanda away.

"You can never argue with an overprotective father." She snarled. "And you just want to go over the walls because you're BORED?"

"No, baka. It's because I'm tired of being fucking doted on and I have no freaking knowledge of life outside." Kanda retorted grumpily. "I hate not knowing."

If he hadn't been being dragged at the moment, Kanda probably would've shivered at the uncharacteristically devious smirk that Rei's mouth formed.

"!" was the laugh that echoed later throughout the entire palace, making all the birds and wildlife in vicinity flee for their sanity. "Kanda…you shall regret your wish. Thanks, Arthur Kirkland for giving me this idea."

A few miles away a British man sneezed while shaking his American little brother at a World Summit. She continued, "You'll become dependent on someone, so hopelessly dependent you'll MARRY THEM!"

_How in the world did that girl pass the bodyguard test?_ Daisya, one of the palace servants, thought in alarm.

Allen Walker sneezed. "Lavi, you better not be perving me out again!" the white-haired servant girl yelled upstairs to Lavi, son of General Cross Marian, and one of her bosses. Said redhead poked his head out of his room.

"Not me! It was probably Kaen." He cheekily called down, earning a kick on the head from his brother Kaen.

"I already have a girlfriend, idiot!" the teen yelled. In the palace, Ryuukei sneezed.

"Whatever, get down here for breakfast or I'll eat it all!" came Allen's threat from the dining room. The twins' eyes widened as they made a mad dash downstairs where the head maid was inhaling her breakfast.

"NO! Allen!" they wailed, seeing the table cleared of victuals. She smiled vindictively at them, pointing to two plates of food at the end of the table. They gave a sigh of relief and started eating, pausing every now and then to give Allen wary glances.

Allen Walker, 21 years old and head servant of the household of General Cross Marian. When she was young, her foster father, a friend of the General, died and Cross took her in as his adopted daughter. To pay off her debt to him for taking her in and to escape the duties of being the daughter of a high-ranked official, she acts as the head maid, much to his chagrin.

Kaen and Lavi Bookman-Marian, 23-year old twins that are very different.

Lavi is an infamous flirt that often attends soirees, while Kaen is currently engaged and likes to ditch parties. Lavi and Allen have never met Kaen's girlfriend, and Lavi often hits on Allen when Cross isn't around to utilize his mallet. Both get along…rather well, although Kaen often explodes and plays a game called "Hunt the Red Rabbit" with Lavi, which usually results in several of Lavi's belongings exploding.

Back in the palace, Kanda was once again in his training room, where he regularly practiced his swordsmanship, and regularly battled rivals.

He'd been thinking about how unimaginably dull his life was, considering that he was a prince. Kanda had no idea why so many people had the idea that royalty got the best life, were given everything they wanted, and got to do whatever they pleased. I mean, here he was, sitting in his usual corner (that Rei called Kanda's Emo Corner), with Mugen on his lap, with his eyes closed as he meditated. How boring could that get? Granted, it WAS Kanda's own fault that he was sitting there and stoning, but there was honestly nothing much better to do. The palace, as big as it was, and as many activities it had, was so… constricted, and he felt no other place in the palace that he could really feel true to himself.

All the prince wanted was freedom. To live a perfectly normal and unenclosed life. Was that too much to ask for?

…yes, considering his status.

After looking into every room, and trying every single activity, he only departed with a minimal understanding of skills such as sewing, and a frustrated self. What was in the castle that could occupy him for the rest of his life? There was absolutely nothing in the castle. The only content that was there was in the outside.

The outside, where his dream of a life awaited.

And meanwhile, because Rei stood outside the door and would know if he tried to sneak out, Kanda mumbled a curse and continued to stare, wishing for that one day, where he could be free.

Allen wasn't feeling much better. So here she was, scrubbing dishes and scouring pans, while desperately trying to conserve the depleting amount of soap because if it ran out as she was washing the things, she'd have to go to the convenience store to buy soap, which was about seven miles away, and she looked disgusting and completely non-presentable. She'd get in absolute trouble if Master came back and found half-done dishes in the sink, and meanwhile Kaen and Lavi were in the living room watching a TV show that she loved, and knew that they were just watching it to torment her.

What a wonderful life she had.

Hey, she knew she'd had been a maid for even worse people, people who made her pay for groceries and necessities with her own earned money, but she wasn't loving this job either.

It was like she was working in hell. Allen hated it, hated working for ignorant people. Even though Lavi and Kaen did occasionally attempt to help with whatever she was doing, they failed miserably, and she'd have to clean up the mess. Oh, and Master would coincidentally come home in the middle of a tornado, and punish Allen somehow, as he did always.

She was always in that enclosed jungle, hardly stepping out of the house, but only to get things to cook and such. Always, she wished that she'd finally earn enough money to get out and do something she'd loved, or maybe find that special someone, but for now she was stuck in this hellhole.

All the maid wanted was freedom. To live a perfectly normal and unenclosed life. Was that too much to ask for?

…yes, considering her status.

It wasn't even Allen's fault that she was forced to work as a maid. It wasn't her fault that her parents had died when she was only a toddler. It wasn't her fault that she had to go out and search for a job that could earn her some money to survive, without selling away her body.

Seriously, although she might have seemed chirpy and hospitable on the outside, on the inside she was grumbling and screaming profanities and crying.

Meanwhile, because Lavi and Kaen were in the living room and would know if she tried to sneak out, Allen mumbled a curse and continued to scrub, wishing for that one day, where she could be free.

"Half an hour outside for a four month bonus?" Ryuukei considered, looking at the sky as if in deep contemplation. "No. Five month bonus."

"mumblegrumbleargh whatever fine." Kanda exasperatedly threw his hands up in the air. "Hurry up and tell me if you're going to help me!"

Rei smirked. "Risk my life for a five month bonus? Doesn't sound so good, does it?"

"…"

She laughed. "I'll help, but remember the bonus, and remember it's just half an hour, and remember that right now I'm the one in control because you're the one needing my help. Okay?"

"mumblegrumbleokay."

"Great! I have this genius plan to get you out of the palace…"

Half an hour later, Kanda reluctantly emerged from his dressing room, into his bedroom, and death glared right into Rei's eyes.

"So THIS is your genius plan?" he shouted at his bodyguard, half mortified, half furious.

Kanda was wearing a maid Lolita dress.

Extremely annoyed, he growled at Rei, who was guffawing and rolling around on his bed. "Why the HELL is this dress SO DAMN FRILLY? How are maids suppose to WORK in this thing?" Kanda gripped his skirt, wincing at the evident mou-and-cuteness, and tried to pull the freakishly-short skirt down. How could he have thought it was kinda sexy to have the maids wear dresses with such short skirts? He was regretting that thought – Karma had come back to kick him in the ass.

"Lavi-san, Kaen-san. Why is the maid dress you gave me so short this time?" Allen grimaced, dressed in her new uniform that Lavi and Kaen had designed because her old uniform had gotten a little torn.

The former mentioned wolf-whistled, while the latter brother stood there with a smirk pasted right on his face.

"It's the latest fashion, isn't it? Don't you want to make an good impression?"

Allen dryly replied "To whom?"

"Whoever you might meet! Your future lover, maybe? Besides, you're going out to buy soap because we've run out. And you might find that one guy! I know you've been fantasizing about a knight in shining armor coming to rescue you, haven't you?"

"What? Huh?"

"You sleep talk."

"PERV! I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE A PERVERT! STALKER!"

"Okay," Rei'd helped Kanda arrange his dress a little neater, and did up his hair a little and added some make-up. "My artwork is complete."

"I LOOK LIKE A GIRL!"

"Oh, it was nothing," the bodyguard said as she examined her artwork, "All I did was to bring out the true woman in you."

"DIE."

Eventually, they did get out to the guardhouse, and because Kanda looked so feminine and pretty and Rei was a genius at hair and make-up, they managed to escape the palace without interrogation. The security guard DID wonder for a while why that new maid was fumbling with her heels, but he decided to leave it because he thought that she was kinda sexy.

After that was over, they managed to hitch a car that probably belonged to one of the visiting ministers, and drove down the long, windy lane towards town. And after about ten minutes, they reached the destination that Kanda had been dreaming of for all his years of consciousness.

"This is it," Rei smiled, one hand on the steering wheel, and one hand hovering above the car horn, just in case anyone decided to annoy her. "Welcome to the outside world!"

It was all Kanda could do to nod, as he looked in wonder at the people strolling leisurely on the sidewalks and note the pleasant noises and smells in the air. It was amazing.

"BEEEEEEEEEP!"

The prince-maid glared at his/her bodyguard, wondering why she had to break his moment of reverie in something as inferior as a horn.

"That guy just cut across like that!" the questioned protested, stepping (hard) on the accelerator and making Kanda cough at the amount of smoke. What was with Rei and her impatience? Seriously? Well, Kanda WAS impatient too – what with only half an hour outside, after all, but there was no use getting out there if they couldn't enjoy!

"So this," Rei motioned with towards the right, "is the village. Where everyone lives a happy and peaceful life. And if you want to get to town, you have to drive about seven miles down, where the convenience store and everything is, if you want to buy something as simple as soap, so people tend to want to stock up and everything because most of the people here don't have cars."

"Why don't we have a car?" Allen grumbled as she was shoved out of the house with a five dollar bill in hand.

Kaen sighed as he leaned against the doorway, having heard this complaint about a million times.

"Everyone around here survives without a car, so stop complaining and maybe you can take the bicycle down to town. I'll lend you mine, if you want."

"Really? Thanks, Kaen!"

So Allen brought out the bicycle from the backyard, tested the brakes (the last time she'd borrowed Lavi's the brakes didn't work and she ended up getting this huge scar) and headed out to the main road, where she got on and started pedaling, but not too fast, because if not her panties would show and… yeah.

"OI! HURRY UP!" there was this weird guy-girl (she couldn't tell the gender) shouting at her to hurry up, and she turned around and yelled "I'LL CYCLE HOWEVER FAST I WANT TO!"

For a moment, she noticed a maid in a really pretty dress, a little like hers, in the same car as that bastard/bitch, but Allen turned her head back in front to focus and not get her temper ahead of her lest she start screaming profanities.

Kanda was wondering why the maid that Rei was scolding was so loud, when she turned around and looked at him, and then the only thought that came up in his head was "She's really pretty" and then she sped away, thanks to Rei's complaints. He was about to scold his bodyguard, but then realized that Rei would tease him to no end about his first attraction/crush. So he kept it to himself, and as they cruised towards town, he remained silent. Anyway, if he spoke, probably the passers-by would wonder why he sounded so masculine.

They reached town sooner than he'd expected, and it opened up a whole new world to the spectator in the red sports car.

There were buildings everywhere. All sorts of buildings. Brown ones, green ones, pink ones, yellow ones. And they all had different heights and designs. Some were all royal and Victorian, some had gone for a more modern theme with tons of glass, some had settled for a cottage-like store, and some were simple rectangular-shaped buildings without a roof.

Rei broke the silence. "Look, we hardly have anymore time; you said half an hour outside and it's already been twenty minutes, so I suggest we just drive around a little and head back." Again, all Kanda could do was nod.

It was even busier here. Throngs of people along the streets. A lot more cars on the road. Little kids standing by stores, inviting people to step inside and look at their parents' wonderful pastries or flowers or something of the like. Men clad in business suits. Teenagers holding a bunch of shopping bags, laughing as they skipped along to the nest victim of their shopping spree. Buskers. There was so much outside, and Kanda had barely enough time to take it all in before Rei turned into the highway as they headed back to the palace.

When they were at the palace, Rei stealthily got the both of them into the palace without crashing into Tiedoll or Marie. Corner after corner, every maze they passed, and through a few doors. They made it to the prince's room.

Though, it was a close one when they passed a kitchen and a young servant boy pinched Kanda's ass. He nearly yelled but, Rei decided to cover his mouth before his voice gave himself away.

"Damn it crossdresser! Why didn't you let me kick that guys ass?"

"I don't know about you, but does having you reprimanded, letting your father see you like this, then explain to him why you're dressed like this sound lovely? Or even better yet, explaining where you've been?" Rei dragged the him..

"Che, whatever."

"Don't forget about my bonus!~"

"Does it sound like I have a choice right now?"

"No, but I'd like to remind you!" ,she replied.

Kanda went to his room, and shoved the bodyguard out the room. He grabbed a rag from the bathroom and started scrubbing the make-up off his face. He tore off the maid outfit, shoes, and socks, changing into his every day attire.

As he was staring into the mirror, he fixed his hair that was a bit ruffled. Currently, he was stilling thinking of how many ways to impale or shred the servant from earlier with Mugen. Whether to shove his sword through the throat, or through the heart for a faster death. Brushing off the thoughts, he got out of the bathroom.

Walking onto the balcony, he stared at that wall that he despised more than anything in the world. Was it really keeping him safe, blocking out the so called "horrible" world, or imprisoning him in this confined space?

His mind was reliving his time outside the walls, especially wandering off to that girl who wore a maid's outfit like his and rode on a bike. Who was she, what was her name, and who did she work for? That was his true task at hand right now. Kanda went to the door and opened it to face Rei.

"What is it?"

"I want to leave the palace again."

"Again? I just took you out today, that was the deal." Rei folded her arms over her chest.

"I want you to take me out of the palace for a full day. I'll give you whatever bonus you want, just as long as you can think of a full proof diversion for my family, and keep them from wondering where I've gone." Kanda said with a serious face.

"Why are you so desperate to get out? You have everything anyone out of these walls would want! You're father would kill me just for letting you out for half an hour today! Are you insane? If I do this, there's no guarantee we won't get caught." She pointed out.

"I'm desperate because someday I'll be ruling this country, and how can I if I never see it?"

"You'll need to get married before you can rule." She pointed out the flaw.

"One step at a time. Are you saying you won't help me?"

"No, I'll try and see what I can do, but who knows how long this planning can take." she sighed. "You seriously will owe me huge for this."

Kanda only grunted back in response. He didn't care at the moment, all he knows is that his first steps of freedom (though probably not the best few) were what he desired again. He needed to be out of those walls, to know about the world his father has protected him from.

_What's so dangerous about it?_ He thought, _There's a threat everywhere you look, even here, so what makes the outside world much different?_

"Finally!" Allen said as she put the bike into the rack nearby. She grabbed out a bike chain, wrapping it around the frame so there was no possible way someone could steal it. After securing that, she walked into the store.

_Should I just bu__y one tin of soap or stock up? I think I'll buy four, it doesn't spend that much money and it should last us a good while, unless those redheads decide to cook again. _The young woman shivered at the image.

After grabbing all of the supplies that she saw fit that they needed, Allen went up to the cashier and purchased the items. She was thankful she brought along a basket to hook onto the bike. After dumping the contents into the container, she took off pedaling seven miles.

"Damn it! Why does the store have to be so far?" She continued pedaling, ignoring the obscenities towards her, and making sure didn't flash anyone on the way over.

Allen (amazingly) came back home without crashing into something or running into traffic. It was more surprising that she didn't even get lost and get stuck in the alley, again. She put the bike into the backyard and grabbed the basket, walking through the door.

"Hey Allen! Did you get the chips that I like?" Kaen dragged his brother out into the kitchen. "This idiot ate my entire stash." Kaen had Lavi in a head lock and ruffled his hair.

"It's not my fault I found them! You didn't write your name on it either!" Lavi pouted.

"Yeah, I did, here." She tossed the bag at the two. Kaen dropped Lavi for the bag.

"What did you get me?" Lavi was eying her legs that were showed off because of the skirt.

"Perverts don't get any sweets."

"I told you I'm not a pervert! Kaen is!"

"I have a girlfriend you idiot!" Kaen yelled. "Everyone in the village knows you as the town flirt or the idiot."

"Why are you both so mean to me-" Lavi was cut off as Allen chucked a candy bar at his face. Lavi smiled and hugged her.

"I love you Allen! See, I knew you got me something!"

She got out of his grip, put everything in its rightful cupboard and went to her room to find a longer skirt. When she finally did, she started sowing the torn skirt that caused her to wear a shorter one than usual.

Allen kept telling herself that it could be worse, and that she's better off than some people out there. She could be on the street selling her body for money, but she's not. Instead she's a maid who has a decent life and not (as badly) sexually harassed by a perverted boss.

"Ugh.." she mumbled. "I better start on dinner soon, I think lasagna sounds good with bread sticks, maybe mitarashi dango for dessert."

When she had prepared the dishes after measuring out all of the proper ingredients, she cooked them. "Allen, is dinner ready yet?" Kaen walked into the kitchen, getting a whiff of the meal.

"Almost, maybe five to ten minutes more." She answered. Allen grabbed oven mitts, slipped them on, taking out their meal. It took all of her strength to not eat it there and then with the cheese still slightly bubbling, steam coming out of it, and the wonderful smell of freshly-made noodles.

She cut the lasagna, using a spatula to transport pieces onto a plate, the cheese stringing across. The white haired girl put bread on all the plates, making sure everything was near perfect.

"Lavi! Kaen! Dinner!" The twins raced each other, shoving one another through the door.

"Wow! It looks great Allen!" Lavi stuck the bread in his mouth.

"Yeah, you really have outdone yourself! I also smell mitarashi dango, if I'm not mistaken." Kaen sat down, eating.

"I had all the ingredients, and it's been awhile." Allen rubbed behind her head awkwardly.

"That's great! Allen, you're so good at cooking! Come on and eat." Lavi pulled out a seat for her.

Everyone ate, no complaints, and surprisingly, no leftovers. Lavi and Kaen ate most of the lasagna, the bread disappeared in a matter of minutes.

"So how was your day?" Kaen said as Allen came back with the mitarashi dango.

"The usual, avoid getting hit by cars, some shemale yelled at me earlier, biking fourteen miles." Allen said.

"Really? Can you ever have a safe trip to the store?" Kaen bit into the dango.

"No, remember that time she ran into those debt collectors?" Lavi laughed.

"Okay, that wasn't the best trip, but it's not my fault they couldn't take a couple of hits!" she said in her defense.

"What about when you were caught in that soup can avalanche?" Kaen smirked.

"Okay, what about you two, how was your day?" She raised her eyebrow.

"I beat Kaen at arm wrestling!" Lavi announced triumphantly.

"Only because you bit my hand you cheater. I probably need a rabies shot now!" He showed his hand which was now a small red mark.

"You're exaggerating, you know I have all of my shots."

"I don't want to take any chances. You're an idiotic rabbit, after all."

"If everyone's done now, I'd like to clean the kitchen." Allen said while she grabbed all of the plates, pans, and utensils.

"Sure thing, I'll be in my room reading." Kaen got up.

"I'll be lifting weights if you need me!" Lavi hopped off.

The maid put the plug in the sink, poured some soap, and turned the faucet. She cleaned the pots and pans, then placed the plates/utensils into the dishwasher. Didn't take long, then she had to clean the table and take the trash out.

Allen went to her room and plopped onto the bed there. She stared at her pruning hands and sighed. She felt the stress of running out of soap and being yelled at by that shemale, the physical toll of biking a total of 14 miles more or less, at this point she thought she could hibernate.

Changing into a nightgown, she snuggled under her comforter, shutting off the lights, knowing that this routine would start all over again the next day. However, before she could fall asleep to a peaceful night, someone opened the door, and light fell on her. "Allen?" Kaen asked. Said white-haired maid shot up and gave him the meanest glare she could muster.

"What?" she complained sleepily. "What now?"

"You said that a…"shemale" yelled at you earlier?" Kaen questioned.

"Yeah. Couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl." she replied back tiredly.

"What did they look like?" At this, Allen almost gagged on her saliva.

"Are you…"

"No. It's just I haven't seen my girlfriend ever since she got her new job. And, well…she looks like a guy, so…" he answered shortly. Allen raised an eyebrow. _Blackmail-worthy material! YES!_

Hiding her plotting decision, she responded, "Black hair tied in a really short ponytail, black eyes, and the meanest yell ever." Mentally she was laughing. Kaen took a quick breath and started downstairs, pausing to hear the rest. "There was pretty girl with her, too. Wore same dress as me. Wish I could've talked to her." With that Allen fell back onto her bed, snoring.

* * *

><p>~Omake~<p>

*Flashback-before sneaking out*

"Rei, if you don't wear makeup, how come you are able to put this dusty stuff on me?" Kanda asked, curious. It was right before Rei took him out of the castle walls for the first time, and Kanda seriously was bored while his bodyguard applied makeup to his face. Furthermore, the only reason he was letting that crossdresser do this to him was because she had assured him that he wouldn't be recognized. And she was being considerate enough not to apply too much. Rei stopped brushing and sat back, looking Kanda in the eye. A chill suddenly descended as her serial-killer smile suddenly appeared.

"Do you know what my previous job was?" she asked sadistically. Eyes widening fractionally at the demented chuckles coming from his bodyguard, Kanda hurriedly shook his head. Ignoring it, Rei continued, and her insane smile widened, "I was a mercenary. Do you realize how easy it is to give a target lead poisoning by just adding arsenic to their makeup? It helps to be able to apply it to the areas which she will be affected the fastest."

Silence pervaded the room. Rei sat up and finished applying the makeup to Kanda, giving him a fancy hair tie that the palace maids used for their hair. In horror, Kanda stared at the makeup bag with disbelief.

"You killed people with makeup?" he whispered in disbelief. _Note to self: make sure to ask Rei whether she's using the poisoned makeup or not if she ever applies makeup to anyone again._

* * *

><p><strong>AWARENESS NOTE (SUPER IMPORTANT TO THOSE IN THE U.S.A.): <strong>**Say no to SOPA****/PIPA! Websites like mangareader****, ****YouTube****,**** etc and possibly fanfiction, could be censored for Piracy. Especially on AMVS. Yes, I am usually against Piracy, but thi****s is too extreme. Do you really want all of your favorite writers to have copyright infringement placed upon them? Or your favorite manga site/translators shut down so you'll have to go and buy the books instead of regular updates? That could take months ****for the volume to come out. Sign up for this petition (no spaces)****- fanimeLex**

SOPA would affect sites from other countries, and that would wreck the Internet, which only border has been different languages. Furthermore, WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN TO FANFICTION?- Exile Wrath

**www. Google. Com /landing/ takeaction**

**and let your legislators know this is NOT okay with you. If yes, then this is just the beginning and who knows where it could go after this. Websites like Wikipedia and Craigslist have shut down for a day, Google has shown us what it would look like if this is passed. Please save the internet!**

**Okay, now that the rant has been finished…**

**Review?**


	2. Encounter

Jenniferee: This week, I'm starting off EE. Surprise surprise! xD Thank you for reviewing and favouriting and alerting and stuff~! Hope you enjoy

_Sorry for the delay, especially on my own story. I've been out sick, I'm pretty sure it's the flu. In other words, I haven't been able to think straight due to being delirious and apologize for anything in my part of the story. Thank you for your understanding, please review, and keep reading! __~Lex~_

Exile: I'm so happy! *fangirls* thanks for reviewing, all ^. ^ And I hope no one minds a little OC matchmaking -. -

Disclaimer: WE DO NOT OWN D. GRAY- MAN IN ANY WAY. All rights go to Katsura Hoshino.

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><p><span>EncountErs<span>

Chapter Two: Encounter

Kanda awoke the next morning with a jolt, and noticed to his horror that Rei was in the same room as him.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?" he shouted, which awoke his sleeping bodyguard.

As she slowly got up from the couch, Kanda started to feel the building dark aura swarming around Rei. She threw something at his head, which Kanda dodged in the nick of time. Then he saw the dark bags under her eyes, and noticed that the way she was walking was as though she was severely fatigued. Like she'd been thinking about something.

"Hurry and pack some stuff. We're leaving in an hour," she snapped, pushing open the door and striding out of the room, carrying the darkness with her. Kanda shrugged off the tiny shiver of fear from the aura caused by yesterday's request to let him go out again and decided to obey the (insane) person, since she DID say that she would help him get out.

"Are you done yet?" Rei hissed, poking her head back in the room. "If you're not ready to go within fifteen fucking minutes, the deal is off." With that the prince's door slammed shut violently, shaking the door frame.

Exactly five minutes later Kanda was outside locking up his room, a backpack filled with his essentials in hand. Rei had apparently been staking out his room in impatience and latched onto his ear the moment he turned around. "OW YOU'RE GOING TO PULL MY DAMN EAR OFF!" he roared.

"Shut up. Now listen closely. I'm going to be going out on the pretense of visiting my…my boyfriend." Kanda didn't miss the slight blush that appeared at the last word, "And I'm going to drag you along with me. We'll be telling Tiedoll that since I need to go out and since you can't leave my side, you'll be going out the whole day with me. We'll return at nighttime. And you are going to carry Mugen to assure your old man that you aren't going to be kidnapped. Understand?" Rei whispered into her charge's ear.

When Kanda nodded, she let the poor, abused appendage go and set off towards the throne room, Kanda in tow and rubbing his ear with a mental wince.

As they approached Kanda's dad's throne room, Kanda started to have that sinking feeling – Tiedoll was a pretty cautious guy, and he only cared about Kanda's safety. Probably he'd insist that Kanda stay in the palace with a different bodyguard or something, because the palace was teeming with all sorts of security people. But all he was going to do was let Rei do the talking. She WAS a pretty smooth talker, anyway. And she'd probably kill him before he could get a word in edgewise.

The doors opened.

"Good morning son, good morning Rei," Tiedoll greeted neutrally. "What is it that you might want?"

The bodyguard stepped forward and bowed. "Sir, I have a request to ask of you, if it is not so demanding…"

"You've served Kanda and I for so many years, and you've never asked a request before. What is it?"

She took a deep breath. "I haven't seen my… boyfriend for 8 months, and I kind of, uh, miss him, so I would like to go and visit him," her cheeks started coloring. "But I understand that Kanda would probably need me to be around for him," she rushed, "so I'm suggesting that he come with me. We'll only be gone a day, be back at night, and I promise upon my pride as his bodyguard to take care of him."

Tiedoll paused, deep in thought.

"I wish I had no objections to this, seeing as you deserve a break, but it's the matter of my son…" Tiedoll frowned as he looked at Kanda. "He's not experienced the outside world, and he might get curious and run off – I really don't know." At this, Kanda got pissed off due to his dad still treating him like a child, but a snakelike glare from Rei kept his mouth shut.

"As I said, I will not let Kanda run off or anything like that. I'll make sure he won't even dare run off." she said, giving Kanda a pointed look as he nodded his head in agreement.

"I know that you will do your best to take care of him, but I'm still uncomfortable with that whole idea." There was hesitation, and finally Tiedoll answered, "Alright. I'll keep him in your care. Please keep him safe. You may take the bicycles. Oh, and Kanda, bring along Mugen. Can't leave you defenseless. And eat some breakfast first."

"Thank you, sir!" Rei bowed, and departed from the throne room, a happy Kanda in tow. Not that he showed it, anyway.

Kanda, trying to hide his admiration for his bodyguard, said "So that's it? We're going?"

Rei smirked. "Apparently so!" Right after their rapid breakfast, they immediately headed to the bicycle shack, where they took two bicycles and rode off down the long, deserted lane once again.

"Your girlfriend's coming? We finally get to meet her?" Lavi laughed in excitement, clapping his hands together. They'd all been waiting for the day that they would get to meet Kaen's girlfriend. And now the day had finally come.

"Yeah," he said bashfully, fiddling his thumbs. "She's supposed to come pretty soon." Kaen's behavior earned stares from Lavi and Allen. _Kaen, of all people, does NOT blush or be nervous!_ Lavi yelled in shock mentally. _This girl must be something to make him like this!_

"I baked some apple shortcake!" Allen emerged, as the wafts of apple-shortcake-scent weaved out of the kitchen. "Does she like sweets?"

Kaen rubbed his forehead. "Guys," he pressed his lips together in worry, "Please don't embarrass me or do anything to offend her, okay? It's been a really long time since I've seen her, and I kind of don't want to ruin anything…"

"Chill, bro!" Lavi wrapped his arm around Kaen's shoulder. "We'll be perfectly fine!"

"Yeah right, idiot rabbit. And Allen?"

"Yeah, Kaen?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Kaen also usually did not ask for things from her. He either did them himself or forced Lavi to do them.

"Don't give her too much sugar. Actually, lock up all the sweets like we do to the wine cellar whenever Cross comes." Kaen instructed with a shaky voice. "I have bad memories of her on sugar-high."

"Oh, Kanda, when we get there…"

Kanda turned his head to his bodyguard, waiting for her to continue. He at least owed her him listening to her (a tiny bit) since Rei had gotten him out for a whole entire day.

"Please don't embarrass me or do anything to offend him, okay? It's been a long time since I've seen him, and I kind of don't want to ruin anything…"

He nodded. "Don't worry." _I'm just going to stock up on blackmail material._

They were already reaching the village they had visited the day before, and once again Kanda was overwhelmed by the 'whole new world' outside the one he already knew. Everything was the same as he'd seen hours ago, but he couldn't help but still wonder at the unfamiliarity and difference of it all.

Rei soon slowed to a halt in front of another similar-looking house compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Just on this one, there was a "WELCOME KAEN'S GIRLFRIEND!" banner right smack hanging from the roof.

Kanda smirked. "Looks like they like you already." For a moment, she was stiff, but then she relaxed and calmed herself down. Anticipation over seeing her lover after 8 months built up and felt like overflowing – she didn't realize that she'd missed him so much.

They walked to the front door, and because Rei's hand seemed to be frozen in mid-air over the door, Kanda rolled his eyes and knocked hard on it instead.

The door opened slightly, revealing a cheeky green eye, and then: "THEY'RE HEEEERRREEEEEE~!"

Kaen dropped the pen in his hand, his eyes widened.

The duo were escorted in, with Lavi dancing around like a mad rabbit, as Kaen stood up slowly and looked at his lover.

They started blushing furiously.

Kanda decided to stay away from the lovey-dovey scene happening, and his attention was taken by someone appearing from the right door, someone with white hair, and someone in a really short maid dress. And all of a sudden he remembered the scene yesterday with that white-haired maid cycling for all she was worth, and found himself staring at that pretty girl who had a dish of some pastry in her hands.

"So, hey, Kaen, is this your girlfriend?" the first redhead asked, grabbing Kanda's elbow and dragging him to the center of the room, not ignoring Kanda's protests. He came face to face with the person he assumed was his bodyguard's boyfriend, and all of a sudden, he felt that dangerous aura flare up, already for the second time that day.

The hands of the guy in front of him- he assumed that was Kaen – now lunged for the annoying guy's neck, and Kanda heard the faint _shing_ that meant that Rei had unsheathed her Kamas. Kanda ducked for his life as they swung towards his direction, narrowly missing.

"Hands off Kanda." Rei growled, Mugen in use and at Lavi's throat. _When the hell did she- oh, the chains._ Kanda realized, looking at the empty sheath. Tossing the katana back at Kanda, "KAEN!" she yelled the guy's name, Rei –of all people- glomped Kaen, never mind the fact that he was against the wall and it looked like she was a guy that was pinning him back.

Silence.

"Kaen…are you gay?" Lavi yelped, pointing at Rei in confusion. Allen was eating some of the shortcake in amusement, and was really trying to not yell out in recognition at the pretty girl from yesterday, though at close up she looked like a guy that was apparently named "Kanda".

All that Lavi got in reply was Kaen sighing and reaching up to yank off Rei's hair tie, letting the black hair fall to her shoulders.

"That's a girl?" Allen choked on the shortcake, and the other pretty girl –or was that a guy? – looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" Kanda asked in his usual baritone voice. Allen's eyes widened at his voice and she mentally whacked herself. She could only nod her head and choke at the same time. Lavi came around and hit her back, hard.

"Th-thanks." she cleared her throat of the pastry.

Everything after that was silent, until Allen decided that it would be best to pull out lunch. "So…er, this is Kanda Yuu, Crown Prince of the country and my tar- I mean my charge. My name is Ryuukei Hitoride, just call me Rei. I'm his bodyguard. And yes, I am female. KANDA IS MALE." Rei introduced, turning towards Lavi and saying the last sentence stonily. "I've heard about you two. The Idiotic Red Rabbit and Allen Walker, right?" Allen, Lavi, and Kanda promptly spat out whatever they had been eating (soba for Kanda, linguini for Allen and braised chicken for Lavi) and stared at Rei incredulously. Kanda looked at Lavi and the white haired maid – he really needed to figure out her name soon- and almost laughed at their stunned expressions towards Kaen.

"You- you referred to Lavi as _Idiotic Red Rabbit_ to your girlfriend!" Allen gasped in her laughter. Lavi tried to leap across the table to scuffle with Kaen again, but Allen yanked the back of his collar, accidently sending him flying backwards. "Sorry." she said with not a trace of sincerity.

"Err, yeah. What else am I supposed to refer to that idiot as?" Kaen asked as if referring to Lavi as an animal was completely normal. Which, Allen had to suppose, was completely the standard for Kaen's cynicism. After finishing her plate of salmon, Rei sat back with a contented sigh leaned towards her boyfriend, her head hitting Kaen's shoulder with a loud _thunk!_ that made everyone wince. A moment later it was apparent that she was asleep.

"I've got a question. What kind of insane person are you to actually ask her of all people out?" Kanda asked right after he finished his soba. "Oh and, uh, the soba… was uh yeah you get the point."

"Yeah, sure," Allen smiled a little as she noted his embarrassment. Probably unused to having to thank people for meals. "My name's Allen Walker. I know it's a male name, but it's what my parents gave me. You may call me Allen, Prince…" Allen said politely in reply, searching for the right term to refer to the royalty.

"Don't. Call. Me. Prince." Kanda growled, gritting his teeth at the hated title. "Just Kanda, idiot beansprout."

Before Allen could retort at the new nickname, "Can I call you Yuu?" Lavi asked cheekily. Rei's mercenary danger instincts kicked in and she cracked open an eye in shock and leapt over the table, tackling an infuriated Kanda down in mid-air and both landing on the floor next to the dining table. Kaen reached over table in an attempt to grab Lavi in a chokehold, but Allen saw it coming in the nick of time to push both brothers back down.

"Kanda. Remember what I told you about proper etiquette?" Rei scolded, Kanda in yet another arm lock. The prince was and struggling furiously to get out and when his bodyguard refused to budge, yelled something in his facedown position that the others couldn't exactly hear. _Great. Is this going to be some lengthy lecture on how to behave like a prince?_ Allen thought in exasperation. "What did you say?"

"The rules are no maiming, no killing, and no death threats!" Kanda yelled, flipping back upright. The trio still at the table choked on their food at the "rules of etiquette". "And if I want to kill anyone, I have to get your permission first." They paled. _Those__ are the rules of etiquette? _Allen almost yelled. _That's just the basic rule of not killing anyone!_

"Rei…what have you been teaching him?" Kaen bemoaned from his seat at the table.

"Oh. I was suppose to teach him the basics of proper etiquette, but really the basics were the rules of the mercenary guild." Kaen facepalmed at the table and stood up and walked over to hook her arm, dragging her off Kanda as he headed upstairs. "Hey! Where are you taking MEEEEEEE…" Lavi, Allen, and Kanda heard no more as the couple disappeared.

"…Three bucks says that they're making out." Lavi gambled cheerfully a few moments later.

"Ten bucks says that they're dueling." Kanda snapped. "Idiot rabbit."

"Fifteen bucks says that they're dueling and Kaen ends up saying something that has Rei blushing when they come back." Allen said darkly, her dark side activated the moment Lavi had placed a bet. "Now are you guys done eating?"

"I'm done, beansprout. Uh, thanks, uh, for the food, I guess." Kanda said as politely as he could muster, but he really couldn't help but refer to Allen as beansprout. Rei had accused him of nicknaming the people he liked, after all. _GODDAMNIT, THIS MEANS SHE'S RIGHT!_ He realized in shock.

"Thanks for the food, Allen!" Lavi said happily, and Kanda's heart sank a bit when the redhead ran around and pecked Allen on the cheek. _No maiming_. The stupid bodyguard's voice yelled in his head as he resisted the urge to pull out Mugen and kill Lavi right there and then. He felt a bit better as Allen punched Lavi in the shoulder. "Geez, that was mean!"

"Shut up, Lavi!" Allen roared. "Anyway, do whatever you guys want. I now have to do the darn dishes." Kanda raised an eyebrow at this.

"You're the maid?" he asked, as if it wasn't made apparent by the way she was [forced] to dress [by Lavi]. When Allen nodded, he ran through the possibility of him not breaking any dishes in an attempt to help, but shook his head at the idea immediately. "Why don't you just watch a movie with Cyclops and I while those two do…I don't want to know." he offered. Allen mulled it over for a bit and shrugged.

"It's okay, Allen. You should watch a movie every now and then with us!" Lavi suggested cheerfully. "So why not wait until Yuu here leaves and then finish the kitchen later?"

"Don't call me that!" Kanda bellowed. "Idiot rabbit!"

After Allen managed to calm them down, Lavi selected a random movie –_Fullmetal Alchemist_- and they watched it. When the trio spotted Rei and Kaen jumping out the window and sparring, sending blows and dodging at lightning speed, but with Rei having a full-on blush, Kanda and Lavi reluctantly forked over the bet money to Allen, who had a gleeful smile on her face.

When it was time to say goodbye, Rei gave Kaen a peck on the cheek, both turning very red. Kanda just smirked at the reaction.

"Come again!" Allen waved at Kanda and Rei as they pedaled off to the distance.

Neither Kanda nor Rei talked, considering that they were both busy at the moment. Kanda was happy that he got to see the girl again, well, after they nearly hit her the other day. He'd apologize, but not in front of his shemale bodyguard. Rei was kind of irritated that they all thought she was a guy. But hey, that's what she was usually going for. Now she can laugh about it, one of the most awkward encounters in her life was now over. She also thought it was cute that Kanda kept staring at the little white haired maid. Though said maid seemed to be very naïve and a bit absent-minded. She glanced to the left at the Japanese man and he looked like he wasn't there either. "So, what did you think of the maid, Kanda?" she asked. Kanda got out of his thoughts and the bike he was riding fell over. Rei laughed, dusting off the prince so his father wouldn't ask about the dirt.

"Stupid bodyguard." Kanda muttered as he was using Rei's hand to help himself up. She heard the comment, and let him fall back onto his bum.

"Fine, you're a big boy, help yourself up."

"Asshole." he grunted.

"Is that any way for a prince to talk?" She retorted. "Now hurry up, I need to go pick up something at a store, and if I bring you back too late, I'll be under a guillotine by your father's word."

They hit the shop and went inside.

"Hey Rei!" A girl with long, dark greenish black hair came out and hugged her. "Long time no you're your order just came in yesterday, let me go get it from my brother."

"You know her?" Kanda asked.

"I've been going here for a long time, even before I became you're bodyguard. When she comes back I'll introduce you two if you want."

"No."

"Why? Are you afraid she's one of your fangirls or fanguys? You're really conceited if you think every girl is going to be like that." She said. Then the green haired Chinese girl came back out with a package.

"Thanks Lenalee, I'm surprise it didn't take longer with your brother always delaying you."

"Same, but he was working on that robot again, convinced he can get it to the point of no bugs or kinks to fix." She rubbed her head. "So who's your friend?"

"Kanda Yuu."

"Prince Kanda? Wow, he is like how everyone describes him." she observed the guy in front of her. Kanda shifted uneasily, still having his bad memories with fangirls.

"Let me guess, feminine, almost looks like a woman, especially since he has long, straight blue hair. The only way you can tell is his baritone voice." Rei resisted a snicker.

"Yeah!" Lenalee nodded.

"My darling Lenalee! I need you in here! Komurin is on fire again!" a man's voice came from the background.

"Sorry, Komui started another fire again!" Lenalee laughed and waved at them, as she immediately took off the other way.

"What's in the package?" Kanda stared at the box as they walked out of _Lee's Miscellaneous_.

"Is it really any of your business?"Rei snapped in retort.

"Whatever." he sighed. She opened to box to make sure she got everything she ordered. Inside were polishing tools for blades, strips of cloth, two sheaths, and a knife sharpener. The girl squealed mentally, excited about spoiling her weapons. Most girls had dolls or diamonds, she had blades.

"That's all?" Kanda looked at her.

"Yup, now we better get going, and no slowing down and thinking perverted thoughts about white-haired maids!" she shouted at him. Kanda growled in denial as his face turned a slight shade of pink, which the bodyguard pretended not to notice but kept in mind anyway.

"Shut up, why would I be thinking of that?" but Rei was already taking off.

After going over the last hill and up to the gates, they could finally get off the bikes. Kanda was walking like he'd just ridden a horse. The castle guards all bowed before the crown prince, while he was looking irritated.

"You're welcome for another awesome day your highness." Rei sneered.

"...yeahwhateverthanks..." He headed towards his room, seeing that his balcony was still directed at that wall he hates more than anything.

"See! Was that so hard to say!"

"Do you really want me to be honest?"

"No, because then you'll ruin it like always." She said in defeat.

"Can we ever go back out again, but this time every day?" Kanda said in all seriousness.

"Again! I already told you how hard it was just to get this WHOLE day out! Now you want everyday!"

"If you do, we can go see your boyfriend, everyday instead of every eight months like last time." Kanda made his point.

Rei was thinking it over. She could possibly lose one of the best jobs she's ever had, but she'd get to see Kaen every day. Wait, why does Kanda not mind going to her boyfriend's house? After a few moments, she suddenly came into realization: a certain somebody had his first crush on a certain maid. Rei mentally laughed at the cliché-ness.

"I'll think of something and see what I can do. You have to include no complaining whatsoever." she smirked, knowing that this would be the deal breaker.

"Fine." Kanda said immediately.

Meanwhile, with our favorite white-haired maid, she was thinking over the events that happened. The person she thought was a guy, turned out to be a girl, and the person she thought was a girl, turned out to be a guy. WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE WORLD!

If it wasn't for the Japanese looking man's voice, she would've thought it was a girl. _What was his name? Kanda?, _she thought to herself. Even Lavi had thought that he was Kaen's girlfriend! _Then again, he is a first class idiot. _When she was through thinking out all of the confusion, she went to go and put away the leftovers.

"Too bad nobody ate much, but that means more for me!" she said aloud.

"Hey Allen, Kaen set up a meeting in the living room, you better hurry, I think he's angry!" Lavi squeaked, running in the kitchen frantically. Allen almost facepalmed when Kaen's chain looped around Lavi's neck and dragged him out.

"Just finish in a few minutes, Allen!" Kaen's voice called from the living room. Said maid sighed and went back to the dishes. As much as she hated to admit it, she had been thinking about the BaKanda, as she had been calling him ever since he had started calling her beansprout in the middle of the scene when Alphonse had sacrificed himself and temporarily died in the movie, when said scene had set her off bawling. Not that she does ever admit it. _I wonder…will I ever get a prince?_ She contemplated, soap suds soaking the dishes up to her elbow. _Kanda…he's… but he seems really shallow, though. I wish…_ "Allen! Are you ready yet?" Kaen yelled from the living room, startling her.

"Yeah, yeah, coming!" she yelled back. "Bloody idiots." Allen muttered, setting down the dishes and stuffing them in the dishwater. When she had pulled off her gloves and exited the kitchen a hand grabbed her shoulder and dragged her upstairs, and an unwilling Allen let out a yelp as she saw that Lavi had been tied to the downstairs couch again. "KAEN! LET GO OF ME GODDAMNIT!" she yelled in his ear, but it didn't affect the redhead at all. She was toughly tossed on his bed, and Kaen locked the door to sit down on his chair, his laptop on and Skype logged in. "What the hell!"

"Sorry." Kaen immediately apologized by instinct. "It was the only way to get you from Lavi. But anyway, what do you think of your prince?" For a moment Allen was confused, but her face instantly went red when she realized the he was referring to Kanda. "I mean, isn't he an actual prince? And not to mention that you've been dreaming about a-"

"Shut up!" Allen shouted, face now as red as a tomato. "But is this all you wanted to talk to me about? You scared the hell out of me!" Kaen shrugged.

"Hey, I said sorry. But last question then: how would you feel about Kanda and Rei coming over to visit again?" he phrased. Allen lifted an eyebrow at this and her face went redder, if it was possible.

"I never want to see that BaKanda again!" was her indignant retort as the maid stormed out of his room, went downstairs and untied Lavi, then went back to doing her chores, double-speed. When she had finished, Allen ran upstairs to the sparring room, and all the twins heard from her the rest of the day was multiple curses at Kaen and Kanda, as well as the sounds of repeated strikes to the punching bags.

"…Rei, did you hear that?" Kaen asked to his lover, who had been on the other line of Skype the whole time.

"Yep. And it turns out my tar- my charge has his first crush." Rei snickered back. "So what should we do?"

"I already have a plan…one sec." Kaen leapt from his computer chair and slammed the door shut, bolting it and double-locking it from the prying ears of his twin. "And Rei, you're not a mercenary anymore. You're a bodyguard. Quit referring to Kanda as your target. It's scary."

"Utterly and _incredibly_ sorry. And could you do me a favor and call up my old contacts from the guild? If all goes well I could potentially see you every day. With Kanda." she added as an afterthought.

"Yes!" Kaen said in glee almost immediately, diving under his bed for Rei's old information from when she had been in the guild. Rei just shook her head in exasperation, "So when will you ever let me do it with-"

"Shut up, perv!" Ryuukei snapped, face as red as Allen's had been.

Downstairs, while Allen was busy kicking the hell out of punching bags in the sparring room and Kaen was Skype-ing with Rei, Lavi was hopelessly bored and despondent. _It's not fair, darnit! I've known Moyashi-tan ever since I was 7, and then she always is so dense to whenever I flirt with her! And then the darned prince comes for the first time and she actually gets mad at him! She only sheds her polite side with people she likes! It's not fair! _Lavi mentally ranted. _I've known her longer! And that guy is an ice-block that looks like a girl! _The redhead continued to throw curses at Kanda in his head. Suddenly, out of his boredom rose a devious idea that made his eyes twinkle and sparkle. _Bingo!_

Kanda sneezed.

"Ugh. Don't tell me someone's thinking about me AGAIN," he grumbled, but stopped when he wondered if it was the maid. UGH he was fantasizing. Again. That kind of thing would never happen.

But seriously, it wasn't his fault that the maid – Allen – was so, uh, interesting. Look, how was he supposed to feel? He hadn't gone through this sort of stuff before! Curse his dad for not letting him go out earlier. And so here he was, this underdeveloped socially awkward brat. Seriously.

Kanda couldn't help but return to fantasizing over Allen. I mean, she was just there, in his brain, and there kind of wasn't much else to do at the moment. What sort of life had he been living before knowing her, anyway? Stoning around all day? He didn't have a life.

It would seriously be nice if he DID manage to get together with Allen. But she'd never like him back, not a stuck up prince like him who had no idea the type of stuff maids went through (other than the experience of wearing a short Lolita dress) and who was miles away from her in terms of social standards. In the mean time, all he could do was waiting for Rei to work her magic and possibly see Allen every day.

That would be nice.

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><p><strong>OMAKE: Martial Art Enthusiasts<strong>

One of the pointless conversations that Rei, Kanda, Kaen, Lavi, and Allen had over lunch was rather…odd. "So Kaen, how did you get to know Rei anyway?" Allen asked curiously. Kaen had never been the guy that seemed to be able to get a girl; the playboy and flirt was always Lavi. But Kaen was the one that was actually engaged to a- cross dressing girl, and, let's face it, Allen was eager to know the backstory.

Kaen hesitated before answering, looking at Rei in uneasiness, "We were in the same elementary school, middle school, and were in the same high school until Rei…um…"

"Until I got my first job." his girlfriend supplied helpfully. Kanda turned pale at the little information that he knew about Rei's first job. "In elementary school, everyone had to introduce ourselves. So when I stood up, I-"

"I remember clearly." Kaen snorted in amusement. "I'm a person that likes martial arts and hates people." he quoted. "Talk about awkward. But I stated myself as someone that liked to fight, too, and then we challenged each other to a fight afterschool to see who won. We hardly exchanged a dozen blows before she put me in a freaking chokehold. After that, every single day, without fail, we fought to see who was stronger."

Allen's eyes widened in shock, "Seriously? You hardly look like... a fighting type of person!" she yelped, pointing accusingly at Lavi. "I mean, I've seen you play Hunt the Red Rabbit before, but…"

Lavi winced at the "game" that Kaen regularly "played" with him. "He's always had that dark side." Lavi's jaw dropped at a memory, "Just like you, Allen~!"

Allen's dark side activated. "Wanna bet?" she said darkly, hand reaching to her deck of cards in her pocket.

"Let him continue, idiots!" Rei yelled at the two.

Everyone shut up instantly.

Kaen sweatdropped, "Uh, yeah. So then we began sparring pretty regularly. I think it got on a daily basis."

Kanda scoffed at the countless spars that Rei and himself had fought. "Seriously? She does it to me. You THINK?"

"Fine, it got on a daily basis. And then I guess it was around that time I began to have... feelings, for her. But at that time I still thought she was a guy." Kaen said hastily, shooting a scared glance at Rei, who cracked open an eye to glare at him in exasperation.

"Seriously, why does EVERYONE think I'm a guy?" she complained. "I forgot how many times in middle school and high school that I got confessed to…BY GIRLS!" Kanda, Lavi, and Allen couldn't help but gasp. "Okay, I acted like a gentleman to girls, a bitch to guys back then. Except Kaen, he was the one exception. But still, why me!"

"Because you look like one." Lavi answered solemnly.

Kanda snorted, "Stop acting tsundere, Rei, you WANT to look like a guy." Kaen started coughing to disguise his laughter.

"SHUT UP! I'M NOT TSUNDERE!" Rei snapped, getting into a fighting stance. However, her voice did the opposite of cracking and the last sentence sounded like a guy had yelled it, giving her odd looks from around the table, "Okay, sorry, force of habit. I was raised as a boy by my dad. He didn't like women because my mom left him and thus decided to… you get the idea."

"Kaen, please continue." Allen coughed after another awkward silence.

Kaen nodded. "Okay, well…I started getting feelings for her. I guess I realized that I was in love with after…"

"Let me guess. After Valentine's Day 7 years ago when I asked you to reject half a list of girls that had sent me love letters while I went to reject the other half." Rei said derisively, and Kaen's face went red. "HA!" the others stared at the two in confusion.

"Kaen, are you sure that Rei's a girl?" Lavi asked, scared. "She acts like the seme."

"Shut up, rabbit. Anyway, one day during our usual spar, her shirt got torn." Everyone's eyes swiveled to Rei. "No idiots, nothing like that happened. She wears a whole bunch of black bandages around her chest as bindings so she can pass as a guy. I asked her what they were for, and she explained."

"And, it turns out I was a girl. Hooray. Tadang. End of story. Happily ever after." Rei said rapidly, her cheeks getting red.

Kaen shot a soft smile at Rei. "Yeah. And then I actually tricked her into confessing to me." His smile grew even wider. "But we have yet to-" a fist was sent towards his face.

Rei was now redder than a cherry. "WHAT'S THAT SMILE FOR, YOU PERV?"

And so they did (kind of) live happily ever after! For now. (But really, this story is not centered on Rei and Kaen. This story is about a prince and a maid, Kanda and Allen. Not the cross dresser and the sadist)

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><p><strong>Exile: Did you like it? Jeniferee wrote the omake this time~<strong>

** You can submit ideas for the next omake...if you-**

**Review?**


	3. Entourage

Exile: Hello again! Anywho, there's no KandaOC in this fic, just reminding you~

Joy: Hope you enjoy our third chapter! Thanks tons for reading. And for following and reviewing and favouriting and stuff and well I'm really grateful hahas! ENJOY :D

Lex: I'm going to update my story _What Starts In the Summer_ Some point today, sorry for the delay, but life doesn't hand me lemons, it hands me hell and some rubbing alcohol.

**DISCLAIMER**: **We do not own** D. Gray- Man.

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><p><span>Entourage<span>

"Kanda! Move, damn it." Kanda vaguely registered Rei's voice say. "I said move, damnit!" the prince abruptly found Rei's knee in his side and in a moment he was rolled up in his own blankets and shoved off his bed then onto the floor. Thrashing around in the blankets until he could breathe again, Kanda popped up, red-faced from lack of oxygen, and glared at Rei evilly. "You had it coming."

"What the hell are you doing this early in the morning?" Kanda roared. Rei just looked down at where her charge was lying on the floor with a menacing glare.

"Don't disturb me if you want to be able to get out today and the rest of the week." she barked, turning back to the headboard of the bed and fiddling with something. "Go pack up for a week's time out of the castle. And bring Mugen. You want to experience life outside of the castle, well; your wish is my command."

"What's the plan?" Kanda asked while packing rapidly and Rei was running around the room, throwing around various bits of furniture. He found himself kicked out of his own room and shoved in Rei's adjoining bedroom with an evil hiss of Shut-up-and-don't-bother-me from her. Whilst Rei did who-knows-what in his own room, Kanda took the chance to absorb his surroundings. The idiot Exile had never allowed him in her own room, and he had been curious to see how she lived. In the corner was a pile of black bandages that he safely assumed were for binding her chest, and two walls were covered with every single bladed weapon imaginable, as well as a variety of hand grenades. Eyeing the floor around him, Kanda noticed that it overall looked like…a guy's room, with various clothes tossed in random places and books everywhere.

"Okay, I'm done. Get out, hide your hair, and follow me. Don't say anything." Rei called a few moments later. Kanda rummaged around his backpack and pulled out a black trench coat with silver decorations and a large hood. When he put it on, Rei's eyebrow twitched and she dropped her hands, sighing. "Why am I doing all of this for you?" she questioned herself. Kanda froze, afraid of what the answer was.

"Are you…" he asked, hopping away from the female. Rei shot up and glowered at him.

"No, it's nothing." she retorted. "Anyway, listen closely… I'm going to take up some jobs, from my old job. And you…you'll come with me in the guise as my partner, and you'll be given a task to do. Do it, and when you're done, get the reward and get out. Go to Kaen's, do anything but stay there. I've set up several traps in your room, so that anyone that opens the door will get a prerecorded response and something thrown at them."

"What about you?" Kanda asked in confusion. Rei shook her head.

"Its okay." she assured him. "I'm just, err…going to do some…jobs." The prince glared at her when he noticed how Rei's voice did that opposite-cracking thing; going deeper than usual. "I'm going to tell Tiedoll that you've come down with a cold and that you want to be left alone, and that no one should go near you because you're in such a bad mood that you will throw something at anyone. Also, that I left some food in there for you so you don't starve. And in the meantime, I need to go out and see some people that I haven't seen in a long time. The perfect alibi."

Kanda was silent for a moment before shrugging off a nagging feeling in the back of his head. "And so…what am I going to be doing the whole week?"

"You…you're going to live. Enjoy life outside, that stuff. Kaen said that you can use his room in the meantime for the whole week." Kanda's inner alarms went off and he grabbed Rei by the throat, her eyes widening in shock.

"Explain. What's going on, why are you doing this?" Kanda hissed, shaking her collar.

"You said that you wanted out! I'm letting you have fun outside for a week! You'll live with Lavi and Allen during that time!" she answered, panicked.

"And what about you and your boyfriend?"

"We're going back to the guild so I can take the goddamned exit test and hopefully return alive!" she yelled back, obviously tired and fed up. As if realizing what she just said, Rei clapped a hand over her mouth and ran off towards Tiedoll's throne room, her charge right behind and still hooded, but also feeling betrayed. Rei knew practically everything about him since the eight months she had been around, and Kanda knew little about her. Heck, he had thought Rei was a guy the first week! Kanda was not going to let the person closest to being his older sister off the hook that easily.

When Kanda had caught up to Rei in front of the grand doors that led to Tiedoll's throne room, she gave him a warning glance before they slid in. Tiedoll was finishing up his breakfast and looked surprised when he saw Rei and a hooded person come in.

"Well child, what do you need today?" Tiedoll asked with good humor. Rei dropped to one knee (_The way that men kneel._ Kanda realized.) ,and bowed her head.

"Kanda is having a bad day." Rei said nervously. "Well, a bad week. Someone mistook him for a girl yesterday, and he got pissed off at the stranger, although I prevented him from doing any harm. He's sulking at the moment, and when I tried to open the door this morning he threw something at me. So I made sure to drop some soba packets inside his room so that he can eat when he gets hungry." she lied smoothly. Kanda really had to wonder why Rei could lie and act so easily, to the point that Kanda almost believed that he himself was sulking in his room. Tiedoll's face grew mournful at the story.

"Poor Yuu." he said sadly, and Rei had to glare at Kanda to bite back his usual retort at the usage of his name. "So what is it that you need, Rei?" the bodyguard swallowed; here was the hard part.

"Len here," she said, elbowing Kanda, "came to deliver some news to me. Um, King Tiedoll, I never formally left my former job. I need to go back and clean up some loose ends before someone grabs those loose ends and tracks me down." Tiedoll's eyes narrowed, and the room suddenly chilled at his demeanor. "King?"

"Ryuukei, I believe that no one here knows your former job. Why?" Tiedoll asked mildly, making Kanda wince under his hood. Rei looked down at the ground and stood up to bow deeply.

"Because my former job is something that I ran away from. My boyfriend almost died during the time I was employed there, and God knows how many times I came close to being killed in cold blood. However, my employers are searching for me now, and I need to go and formally quit it so they will not come after me and endanger my friends and my charge." Rei said stiffly, every word bringing back memories of those years. "Kanda will be safe in his room, I made sure of it. I'll be out for possibly a week."

"…I trust you enough that I will not inquire about your former job." Tiedoll finally sighed. Rei and Kanda let out inaudible sighs of relief, "And I'll be giving you this one week to wrap up these loose ends. Now who is your companion?" Tiedoll asked, pointing at Kanda, who was still hooded and looked like a stranger. Kanda bit back a curse at the question, and Rei's breath hitched in her throat.

"This is Len, one of my friends from my former job. He came to alert me about the potential danger, and that I need to go back soon." was her glib reply. Tiedoll looked at "Len" and Rei suspiciously, then sat up straight and pointed at the doors.

"Ryuukei Hitoride, I now formally suspend you from your job as the prince's bodyguard for a week. Within 7 days, I expect all potential dangers and loose ends to be tied up, understand?" Rei nodded and bowed, Kanda doing the same, and then both strode out briskly.

"Let's go grab a horse, Len." Rei said after a short, awkward silence. "They'll be better than bikes."

Kanda nodded, and then stopped to wonder who "Len" actually was. He knew that she was currently using it as his cover name, but every time she referred to Kanda as that, she looked unhappy. They grabbed two horses, a black stallion for Rei and a brown gelding for Kanda, and cantered out of the castle grounds, receiving salutes from guards lining the grounds. After they had left the castle behind in the thick woods, Rei slowed her horse to a trot.

"You're curious to know exactly what my job was, aren't you?"

"No shit Sherlock." Kanda snapped back. "You're so freaking vague about it. And to top it off, you know virtually everything about me, but I hardly know anything about you! It doesn't make sense, and you lie too easily for my liking. Not to mention that your actions and your words are so contradictory that you're almost a paradox." Rei was quiet, steering her horse towards Kaen's house while the horses received odd looks from other people.

"I worked…as a mercenary," she said hesitantly, as if waiting for rejection, "for the guild New Millennium." Kanda went pale.

New Millennium was an infamous mercenary guild that would do things ranging from assassinations to milking the black market. Their employees were ruthless, cunning, and it took 5 normal men to defeat even the weakest member. And now everything about Rei became clear; the lies, the acting, the effortless fights against assassins, the numerous scars lining her arms and legs; the impenetrable silence and the evil aura that Rei dragged with her whenever she was upset. When Kanda finally regained his composure 3 seconds later, Rei was glaring at him steadily.

"Did you ever kill people?" Kanda asked, wide-eyed. He had seen Rei take down assassins with her bare hands, but she had only knocked them unconscious…right?

"Yes." Rei replied lips thinned together. The glare intensified, "If you don't like the idea of a _murderer_," she practically spat, "being your bodyguard and your protector, I'll quit the job, your Highness. In fact, we can turn around right now and I'll drop back in your chambers and turn in the resignation forms." Kanda could tell that Rei was serious, and on the defensive. _Fuck, she's probably been trained that people are going to reject her._ Kanda mentally cursed.

"I don't care." Kanda heard himself say, "As long as you do your job and not try to kill anyone in the castle, I don't care about your past. There's nothing possible to change." Rei's mood lightened a bit, but her scowl remained affixed to her face. "Does Kaen know?"

"Yeah." Rei answered, turning the corner into Allen's neighborhood. "He knows. He's the one that's helped me avoid the hunters." A dry laugh escaped her throat. "Kanda, did you know that half of those assassins were after _me_ instead of you? That's how…_valuable_ I was." When they reached the front of the house, which had to Rei's relief taken down yesterday's ghastly banner, Kanda dismounted and looked up in confusion at her.

"Just drop your clothes and other stuff in the house, Kanda." Kaen said from behind him. "Take enough food for lunch. You'll need to go with us to the guild."

"Why?" Kanda asked nervously. Rei smiled sadly.

"So then you can see, Prince, what the scum of the outside world is like." Kaen answered for her, walking around to Rei's horse. She frowned and aimed a kick at him.

"Kaen, you are NOT riding with me. Get your own horse, perv. And Kanda, don't let anyone see you." Kanda ran into the house and had a hard time not sneaking up on Allen, who was cooking something in the kitchen. He evaded Lavi and ran upstairs to Kaen's room, dropping his sack under the bed and flying out in 5 minutes. _I should've sneaked up on her._ Kanda thought with a disgruntled sigh.

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><p>They rode hard and fast for what seemed like hours, even though it was only 30 minutes. The guild New Millennium was hidden far from normal people's lives. They had to go through several areas where Kanda could swear that they were being watched, but whenever he opened his mouth to complain, Rei would give him that glare and he'd shut up. Rei and Kaen were tense, him taking the rear and her being the vanguard, Kanda in the middle.<p>

The horses galloped through the woods and over the riverbeds with impatience similar to their riders. Shortly, Kanda could see two twin towers poking up from the canopy of the forest, and soon he could see the top of other structures. Straight ahead of the trio was a menacing black gate in between two barbed- wire fences which sparked and crackled with high voltage currents.

The guild was in between two cliffs of the Genbu Mountains, and on two sides were the cliffs; behind was the fast-flowing Mokeng River. The only easy access was through the Nocturne Treesea and the gates, Kanda felt his throat go dry at the sight. There were no guards in sight, but when Rei rode up the gates swung open ominously. The black-haired girl halted Kaen and Kanda with a hand and then withdrew a hand grenade from the recesses of her coat and tossed it into the sprawling plaza right behind the gates. Sacks and barrels that had been scattered randomly around the square suddenly jumped out of the way of the explosion, revealing a plethora of different people with two things in common: they were all people with eyes that had seen death and all of them were wielding some kind of weapon. One of them, a big burly man with tattoos lining his bald head and gold earrings, stepped up and pointed a Rei with his scimitar.

"So, Exile, living the easy life were you? Did our message come across?" Rei's eyes narrowed and Kanda felt himself and everyone else being absorbed by her oppressive killing aura. "I guess not. You're still an impertinent dog, aren't you?"

"I came here to take the exit exam." Rei announced emotionlessly. All the mercenaries exchanged glances and then burst out laughing, rolling on the ground and emitting gales of laughter. Her battle mode intensified, and then a woman stepped up, sides still shaking with laughter.

"Foolish Exile." she taunted. "No one takes the exit exam. We stay in the guild for our lives, until we die." The gates swung shut abruptly, startling Kanda and Kaen, separating them from Rei. "So you have to beat every single one of us in a series of straight duels until you die or rethink."

"Open the gates. I brought my partner with me, and a friend. Len is going to take a job and then go. Kaen is going to take the test with me." Rei rumbled dangerously. A few catcalls and whistles were heard from the crowd. "Let Len alone!"

"Fine, Exile." the same woman laughed. "I'm up first. Len, we moved the job boards over to the center. I hope you decide to stay a bit after you finish!" Out of the blue, a dagger appeared in the woman's hand as she charged at Rei. "Die!"

"First one to move loses!" Rei retorted, snapping out her Kamas and looping the chain around the woman. "You die!" The two became blurs of speed and sparks flew everywhere as metal clashed every second. Rei was obviously winning by the end of the minute. "Speed Blade? You're slow!" before she could knock the woman "Speed Blade" unconscious, the burly man from before jumped in, aiming at Rei's unprotected back.

"I'm your opponent!" Kaen yelled at that instant, dismounting his horse and vaulting over the gate with ease. He smacked something and the gates swung open once again, leaving Kanda to shake himself out of his stupor as he watched the insane duels taking place. It appeared that Kaen's weapon of choice was an odd- looking scythe, with two blades in opposing directions on opposite ends of the pole. He swung it about, making blood spray from the tattooed guy, and Kanda wrenched his gaze from the fight and led his mount over to the signboards covered with papers.

He tore one of the flyers off and read it. _Will pay 3000 dollars for delivery of Akuma gears to Noah's Ark._ Was what the paper read. Kanda scowled and went to the person with a conspicuous sign of "REGISTAR" pointing at them. He slammed the flyer down in front of the woman, who simply took the flyer, circled the target location, and reached under the counter to hand him a backpack that jangled and clanked with the sound of heavy gears. Giving the fight one last desperate glances, Kanda snuck out of the gates, mounted his horse, and galloped in the direction of the city, where he remembered something Rei had told him before.

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><p>"Noah's Ark and Black Order are competing modeling and fashion design agencies in the city." was what she had told him one day when he had caught her staring at a paper with the four words on it. Gritting his teeth, Kanda spurred on the horse until they reached the border of the Nocturne Treesea. From there he cut through the village and got on the suburban road.<p>

He kept riding. Even though he knew that Rei and Kaen wouldn't have their exit exam over so early, he kept going faster, keeping momentum, as his mind kept tugging from the road in front of him to his scattered thoughts about everything he was feeling. Cold sweat. Throbbing heartbeat. He admitted to himself that he was anxious, extremely anxious. It was rare that the bodyguard had seemed so serious about something, and he had known her for nearly forever. As much as he hated to admit, Kanda had actually gotten attached to her – they knew that they had each other's backs.

This was serious.

Following the map with as much care as one possibly could while riding a horse; he swerved into a narrow junction, and sped up when he saw the huge sign signaling the city. It was only for a moment that he felt a knot in his stomach about seeing yet another new place, but he went back to focusing on reaching that place, Noah's Ark. And as he rode on the roads, he couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of people, and notice how slow they were going. How little they knew.

Even though this was such a new experience, having something to rush so desperately for, as well as being out in this new environment for the first time, Kanda somehow felt some part buried in him that seemed to tell him what to do. That pointed out which way or what would probably be sensible. That told him that killing people out here in the open because they were in his way was not a good idea. It was instinct. Finally deciding to kick in.

It was a long ride, and Kanda was slowing down, getting tired, his muscles aching from all that riding. He yanked his horse to the right, into an alley, to examine the map again. Noah's Ark was pretty nearby – probably about a 5 minutes ride away. He stumbled off his horse, legs getting used to flat ground again, just to take a break for a little while before heading on to his destination. Then he could ride back, and get the cash, and head to Kaen's place. And see Allen again. His mind was clouding up with small, insignificant thoughts, before his eyes appearing black dots. Why was he so tired, anyway? Shouldn't he be more used to exercise like this? What was that smell, anyway?

What was that smell?

With a shot, he jumped out of his seat in the corner, as his eyes watered at the pungent stench. What was this? Poison? He struggled to stay awake, and fought to keep his vision clear. Harder. Harder. Sleep was calling. The ground. The sweet, comfortable ground, where he could sleep, and dream his dreams away, and stay in fluffy rainbow land where everything was peaceful and where Rei was safe and where Allen was there and… and…

Before he could finally doze back to sleep, he heard a sharp slash through the air, as the pain landed on his skin in a long gash along his arm.

Kanda gasped, in surprise, the shock of the burn startling him awake. He knew immediately that he had to act fast, or risk turning drowsy again and getting minced up by these guys who probably didn't mean any good at all.

"We heard you were on a mission." A gang of men suddenly materialized out of the fog, their big-and-burly leader at the front line, holding a mace. "We wanted it."

Without a word, Kanda swiftly unsheathed his sword to slice across the man's neck. But he wasn't fast enough, and as the mace narrowly missed him, he realized that he was dealing with people from the mercenary here, people who were trained to kill, and trained to kill fast. People potentially even as strong as Rei.

Emitting a dark aura, he swung his sword in the half-fog, feeling it make contact and slicing through someone's gut, as a strangled cry was heard. Someone came up from behind him, but Kanda was now in full swing – he swerved and ducked, just in time, as a small device came flying over him and exploded, which certainly would have killed him if the device had made contact with him instead. At once, Kanda jumped up and speared the source before it could kill him, and felt a wave of accomplishment when he yet again killed someone else.

All those years of sparring with Rei finally proved to be worth something – the next two that came up were weaklings, who waved around their sword randomly as they attempted to hit something. Eliminated immediately. Now the fog was really obscuring sight. Kanda strained to see something, his perfect vision aiding him in spotting someone running through the fog. That one, too, was taken out by chopping off his head with another swift move with Mugen. He failed to see the last man behind him, whom Kanda thought he defeated…

…who pierced behind, with an ice pick, right through his chest.

The prince was momentarily stunned, as he felt the weapon that had made its way right through his chest. Unnerved, he used Mugen to slice that baka into pieces, and at once moved to a place where he could see clearer, into some other alley.

Gently, he removed the ice pick, and tore off part of his cloak to wrap around his bleeding chest. It was pretty serious, but it didn't seem to have hurt any vital organs, so that was good. But it hurt. With as much strength as he could muster, he hoisted himself up onto the horse, still slightly traumatized by the earlier fight and the fact that he just killed 6 men, and shakily rode over to Noah's Ark.

He soon arrived at the huge gate, and threw the bag of miscellaneous parts down to the security guard.

"From the mercenary," he said, a little breathless, and the guard nodded, handed him a slip of paper to return to the guild, and brought the bag inside.

So that was it? He rode back, taking a little more time now, but still worried with Rei and how she'd be doing. Maybe he would get to see her fight against some of those guys? He tried to erase the mere possibility of Rei getting killed by them – she wouldn't let that happen, would she? And Kaen would always be there to protect her, anyway. It was no use thinking and wondering if she was going to be okay, because everything was going to be alright at their side. At least, that's what Kanda hoped. Those men had been pretty ferocious, and did manage to hurt him and potentially kill him, and especially when Rei was up against a lot more people…

He shook the thoughts from his head, and tried to focus on the path ahead. The guild wasn't all that far away from Noah's Ark, actually, and as he rode back it seemed faster because he knew where he was going back to.

Not too long later, he rode up the lane to the guild to claim his reward. After handing the slip of paper to the person at the counter and claiming a bag stocked to the brim with gold bars, he hesitated, wanting to see Rei in action.

But he resisted, and rode off.

Finally he was going somewhere where he could rest. And he was looking forward to seeing Allen again… Why did he keep thinking about her, anyway? Ugh. He was feeling like some sort of love-sick teenager, like in all those clichéd stupid teenage romance books he never bothered reading. These feelings were a little troubling. Didn't mean he didn't like the feelings, though. She just…. just, yeah.

He found himself riding faster, as if in anticipation.

Once more, he rode down the familiar street, and skidded to a stop in front of the house he'd only been to thrice but knew like the back of his hand.

"Kanda-san!" Allen had spotted him from the kitchen window, and came outside to greet him. Were her cheeks just the tiniest bit pink, or was it just his imagination? Probably the latter choice. It wasn't like she liked him, anyway. Unwittingly, he felt his own cheeks reddening a little, as his heart started thudding a little harder to remind him of his red feelings for her.

"Yeah, hi again," he awkwardly said, having no experience at meeting someone so casually except for Rei. What was he supposed to say in these circumstances, anyway?

Allen didn't seem to mind, though, and smiled as she tilted her head and brought him in. So cute. He just wanted to grab her then and… do stuff to her. WHY WAS HIS MIND ROAMING SO MUCH? Positively unkempt these days. He really needed to learn how to keep track of his thoughts.

Then he remembered.

_Rei. How was she doing now?_ Kanda gritted his teeth and shook his head. _She wants me to me able to live like a "normal" person. So I won't waste this sacrifice. _"Kanda, have you seen Kaen?" Kanda jolted out his stupor and shook his head. _I'm sorry for lying._

"Yuu! Wassup?" Lavi yelled from the second story, recklessly leaping out the window. Kanda eyes widened, and punched Lavi in midair. "Hey, what was that for?"

"I'm taking care of you guys while your brother is out." Kanda replied icily. Allen felt her cheeks redden, and Lavi frowned.

"Says who?" The redhead retorted.

"Said Kaen." Kanda snapped.

"I thought you just said you didn't see him?" Allen asked.

"He gave me a note through Rei." The prince lied again.

"Speaking of Rei, where is she? Isn't she your bodyguard?" Lavi asked suspiciously.

"She is cleaning up some personal matters." Kanda answered vaguely. The trio stood there, exchanging glances, and then the silence was interrupted by a loud, monstrous grumbling.

"Let's eat." Allen said hurriedly. "It is dinnertime, anyways."

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><p>"Rei! Focus!" Kaen shrieked and a bloody gash appeared on Rei's back. The sun was setting; they had dueled for nearly four hours now. Kaen couldn't remember how many people had just glimpsed nirvana, how many times Rei and he and been charged at, attacked, sliced, whipped… he couldn't. Rei was no longer "Rei", the bodyguard of the prince as well as his girlfriend. He was no longer "Kaen", the big brother of Lavi and Allen. They were just mercenaries fighting for a way out, a way back to the light. Black spots were blurring his vision, except he still swung his scythe. He had to.<p>

Rei was almost like a demon; so used to the dark that when she encountered the light, she slowly became corroded. But, looking at the weary, dead gaze of his partner, Kaen once again entered his fighting stance and sliced someone's thigh, blood spurting in the air. Something collided with his back, and he felt the sharp pain of a knife stab, but the pain suddenly disappeared as Rei automatically attacked the assailant and tore them away.

Rei had ceased to think. Her instincts had taken over, and all she remembered was that the man with the red hair was her friend, so she wasn't supposed to kill him. She didn't talk because she no longer could remember how to form actual, comprehensible words. All her brain registered was the attackers, their positions, their weapons, the blocks she needed to use and the holes in their guard. _Why did I do this? _A tiny voice whispered in her head. _ Why did I come back? I am Zero. I am nothing._

_Flashback|-|Begin_

"_Kaen…don't die. Please don't die." Rei sobbed as she dragged the limp teen through the forest. Behind her, she heard the barks of bloodhounds as they closed on them, the downpour of rain doing nothing to kill the scent of blood._

_The job was supposed to be easy. Infiltrate the palace, assassinate the lord, and get out. But no, everything hadn't turned out as planned. When she had taken the job, she had already predicted the outcome: a dead lord and a mourning country. But now it was the opposite: an unconscious Kaen and a crying Ryuukei. It was their fault, the guild's fault. If only people hadn't trailed them in order to steal the job, then Kaen would be alive. And to top it off, they knew that Kaen was her one and only weakness. _

_Taking a glance at the burns marring half his upper torso, Rei gritted her teeth and scrambled up a tree, placing the unconscious there. _You have a family to return to. _She thought grimly, thinking about Allen, Lavi, and Cross. _I have none. I'm not letting you die anytime soon!_ Stripping off her black, bloody cloak, Rei put the heavy cloth over Kaen, praying that he'd stay warm. Seeing the bloodhounds at the base of the tree now and the lights of guards carrying lanterns approaching them, Rei closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. _

_Hearing the dogs being called off, her lips curled into a slasher smile as she leapt down from the branch to confront the first wave of attackers. However, before she could begin the slaughter something hit the base off her neck as she blacked out._

"_You idiot!" Len roared the moment she woke up. "Don't go around being a martyr!" Rei jolted up in the small cot that her friend had placed her. _

"_Len? Where am I?" she rasped. The blond man gave her a dubious look, shook his head in exasperation, and handed her a glass of water to drink. "Kaen! Where's Kaen?"_

"_He's fine." Len said dismissively. "I patched him up and sent him home. The brat wanted to stay until you woke up, but I kicked him out. His family was already worrying." Rei's face dropped at "family". _

"_Is this how we have to live the rest of our lives?" Rei muttered into her cup. "Kill or be killed; always watch your back for a hidden knife." Len sighed and patted her head. _

_Len Kagami, 26 years old at the time. He was tall, taller than Kaen, and had striking yellow hair and blue eyes. However, no matter how gentlemanly he seemed, he would always be a mercenary in reality. He was the closest person Rei had to a brother. And, well…he hated Kaen for taking Rei from him._

"_It's okay." He comforted. "If you try, even an Exile can escape the chains of darkness." Rei stared at him with new hope in her eyes and, unable to resist, Len pulled her into a hug. "Rei…you should leave the guild with me…"_

_After a few moments, Rei couldn't help but comment, "Len? Can you let go before Kaen kills you at the door?" Since he was facing the wall, Rei got a very good view of the appearance of a malevolent Kaen, who at the moment felt like gouging out Len's heart. _

_A few weeks later, Rei had fully healed and Len was in the infirmary still because the concussion Kaen had caused by drop kicking Len's head that day. When she exited the small house that she and Len shared and walked over to the job boards, a dissenting murmur ran through the mercenaries that saw her. "She's only 21 and yet she's an A-class? That brat still didn't learn her lesson last week?" Rei ignored the talk and ripped off a flyer from the board. _Kill General Cross Marian. _She read, nearly having a heart attack right there and then. _

"_Rei! I'm all fixed up now!" Kaen yelled cheerfully at her across the square, not seeing the horrified expression that was written all over her face. "Rei? What's wrong?" he asked, coming closer to her. _

_Rei reacted immediately. _You can't drop a job once you've taken it._ She remembered, staring at the flier. Turning to face Kaen, she grabbed him a headlock and put on her serial-killer glare. "Leave. Now. I'm dropping all ties with you, Kaen." With that she kneed him between the legs and grabbed the flier in her hand. _You belong to the light. I'm in the dark. We don't mix.

_When Len ran out the infirmary, he saw the scene and at once chased after Rei. "Zero! Goddamnit, you're intending to stay like this the rest of your life?" Passing by the stunned Kaen in the center of the plaza, Len grabbed him by the ear and swung on a horse. "You. Get on a horse and follow me. I have a feeling that she just did something stupid." Kaen hurriedly came to his senses and galloped after the retreating figure of Rei, into the forest._

"_You are Zero. You are not anyone. You exist to give others the Zero value of life: death." Cross said lazily, wine glass in one hand and Judgment in the other. "So why are you after me? Didn't I already approve of you and my foolish son?" Rei stood at the door, both her Kamas on the ground and her hands up._

"_I took the flyer asking for your assassination off the job board." She said tonelessly. "Kaen…he has no place in the darkness, so I rejected him." At the last line, Cross raised an eyebrow, took aim, and shot Rei, who simply ducked and rolled to the ground. _

"_You really have been aptly named, huh?" The General laughed, setting down his wine and striding after her. "Well, you've broken my idiotic son's heart, I guess I'm allowed to put a bullet through yours now." A second gun appeared in his left hand as he fired off multiple shots into the nearby buildings and bushes, and screams suddenly resounded. Rei froze in mid-step as familiar faces from the guild appeared around her and Cross, crowding around them as she backed up. In a few minutes, she and Cross were back-to-back, and surrounded by well over a third of the guild._

"_What is going on?" she stammered, her mouth going dry. _

"_It appears that your friends have followed you. I think someone's jealous that you're fighting side-by-side with a handsome General." Cross smirked, making Rei back-kick him in the crotch. "OUCH!"_

"_So, Exile, why were you surrendering to your target?" One voice called out from the mass of mercenaries. Rei glared and withdrew two shining daggers from her back. _

"_I would rather die than let…_him_ cry." She replied flatly._

"_Well that's a pity, isn't it Exile?" Another voice echoed. "If you intend to have the General kill you, we may as well kill the both of you together!" _

_They charged, and the endless massacre began._

"_I swear that if I see any more mercenaries, I'm going into "Zero mode" again." Rei cursed as she coughed out more blood. Cross stood next to her, coat completely spotless. "So what now, Cross? Gonna kill me?" The redheaded man just took another sip of wine and frowned as he stepped on a corpse._

"_If I did kill you, then that fool would run away from home again. And my reputation with the ladies would drop if he ran away. So no."_

"_Tch. Of course. So what're you going to do then?" Black spots appeared in her vision, and another mouthful of blood was spat out. "Leave me here to die?"_

"_Hey, don't get that stuff on my coat. And that's a good idea. I'll leave you here, so if you die, I'm not to blame." Cross shrugged, walking away. Midway, he turned around and kicked the Kamas where they had lain in the dust. "But then Kaen would go all weepy if he saw your weapons, so catch!" Rei raised a hand weakly and caught the metal, stabbing a blade into the wall and standing up, limping away into the darkness._

_When Len and Kaen finally reached the bar in the alleyway that Cross was spending some time at, they were greeted with the sight of well over fifty fresh corpses. Kaen leapt off his horse and came closer, examining the faces of the dead. "No."_

"_Yes." Len said. "It was a trap." _But it's impossible to kill a bringer of death. She has to be alive, judging by the bloodstains that I saw on our way. _He hoped._

_-Next morning-_

"_Oi, you! No sleeping on the palace grounds, peasant!" a guard yelled at he poked the prone figure that was leaning against the large walls of the palace. Rei's eyes shot open as she clung to the man's arm._

"_Water…please. I need water." She begged. "I need water." The guard just glared at her, and after glance around to make sure no one was watching, kicked her into the moat. _

"_Well then just take a drink in the moat!" with that he walked away, feeling mildly sadistic._

_From the other side of the palace walls, Kanda was hidden in a tree, trying to at least get to the top of the walls to see the outside. He heard the whole exchange and frowned. _Aren't we supposed to be known for kindness? What if that person was powerful? _Looking around, with a huge leap he grabbed the flagstones of the wall, rolling onto the walkway and milking in the sight of the lush forest that surrounded the castle and separated it from the rest of the world. When he saw guards coming to apprehend him and get him off the wall as per his father's orders, they found themselves on the receiving end of his patented death glare. (Literally. Tiedoll had given him a patent for it when he asked one time.)_

"_You guys. Someone just fell into the moat. Go fetch them and bring them to me." He commanded with a bored tone as the soldiers scurried to do his bidding. _Maybe I can ask them about the outside!

_In a minute, Rei found herself grabbed by many, many hands and yanked up to the surface of the water. _If I'm about to die, thank God. I'm tired. Life has no meaning for me. _Instead of feeling a blade cut into the skin of her neck, Rei felt herself being carried from the moat and up the palace walls, catching sight of a tall man with long, dark blue hair before she fainted of exhaustion._

"_Sire, it appears that the man is unconscious." One of them said nervously. Kanda just gave him an exasperated glance,_

"_That's pretty obvious, imbecile. Send him to the infirmary and attend to his wounds. Tell me when he wakes up."_

_-Next week-_

_Kanda was excited, anxious to interrogate the strange man from last week. The guards had just reported that the person had woken up and was asking for food and water. "I'll bring it to him." Kanda offered, stunning everyone in the kitchen. _

_When Rei became fully awake and aware of the white walls surrounding her, the door was rudely kicked open and a tray was placed in front of her. "Eat." The man commanded, sitting down in one of the chairs at the side of the room. Rei stared at the food hesitantly, then grabbed the needle that she disguised as an earring and stabbed it in the food. "What are you doing?" Kanda asked, confused._

"_Poison. Checking." The person replied tonelessly. Kanda couldn't help but snort in laughter._

"_Are you kidding me? This is the palace hospital! Why do you think you're going to be poisoned?" After taking a drink of water from the plastic cup at the corner of the tray, Rei stared at man tiredly, no trace of emotion in her eyes._

"_What do you want with me?" she whispered. Kanda nearly flinched at the cold, deathly tone, the tone of someone who was suicidal._

"_Well, what's your name?"_

"…_I have no name." At this, the prince raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "I don't need it anymore."_

"_Well, if you're going to be like that, then I'll start the introductions first. I'm Kanda Yuu. You may know me as the crown prince. I'm and have never seen a glimpse of the outside world. My intention was to ask you questions about it, because the guards have been forbidden to tell me, as per my father's orders. You were found drowning in the moat. Your turn." _

"…_I have no name now. I was known by many names: Zero, Exile, and Rei. I was a fighter. Not for justice, but for who I was hired. I'd rather die than go back outside. And I'm not someone you would want to ask. I am a denizen of the darker side of life. Please kill me when you're done with me." Kanda froze at the last line. What kind of person would ask something like that? He left with the tray perplexed and still no wiser than he was before._

_It was two days later that Rei woke up again to food and water, served by the prince. "Do you want to go outside?" he asked. Seeing the steely glare in the stranger's eyes, he shook his head. "I mean in the gardens. You're a guest, and you've been cooped up in here for nine days." When the man hesitated, Kanda sighed once again. "Just come on. You look like you're around my age, and there's no one for me to do stuff with. It's fracking boring in here."_

"…_Okay." As Rei stood up, the blanket fell down and Kanda gaped at her._

"_You're…a girl?" _

"_Yeah."_

"_What the- AFDASGAEGEAG- Oi, guard, bring some of my clothes in the top drawer!" he yelled, face slightly red from never having seen a girl like this. Yes, court women had tried to seduce him before, but for heaven sakes he thought that the girl was MALE! Of course he was surprised!_

"_Oi, what am I supposed to call you?" Kanda asked while Rei changed on the other side of the curtain. "I can't just keep calling you "stranger" in my head."_

" _Call me Rei." She said flatly. "And thank you for lending me clothes." The prince shrugged carelessly. _

"_Whatever. Now since I'm helping you, tell me about the outside!"_

_Rei looked at him with a sigh. "Outside, there are two sides. Light and dark. And-" before she could finish the sentence, an assassin appeared behind her benefactor._

"_Die, Prince!" the black-clad assassin hissed, drawing a dagger and slicing at Kanda. To a normal passerby, it appeared that the Prince's head had just been cut, but in front of Kanda stood Rei, a new gash on her arm._

_Looking around her surroundings desperately, Rei decided to fight barehanded. _I don't see any weapons, and Kanda would die before I could requisition some. _Both her entire hands stiffened as she dropped to the ground in a martial arts stance, rushing the assassin with a deadly look in her eyes._

_Kanda stood there on the side, watching almost helplessly as the woman that he had just taken in, who looked ready to commit suicide, began attacking the person after his life, with a speed greater than the assassin's. There was an undeniable menace around her as she rapidly disarmed and defeated the man. It was over the moment it began. Within a minute the assassin's tendons were bleeding and the stolen dagger was bloody with its owner's blood. "Who sent you?" Rei questioned, dagger at the throat. The person glared at her._

"_So the Exile is alive." With that, Rei's eyes narrowed as she did a spin kick into his stomach, sending them flying into the wall a few feet away, as they promptly began coughing up blood._

_A while later, when the guards had come to imprison the attempted assassin, a man Rei didn't recognize came up to her. "Thank you for saving my son." she froze. "Yes, I am the king, Froi Tiedoll. I have heard a little about your situation. Would you like to live here, in the palace, as my son's bodyguard?"_

_Rei didn't even have to think about her answer. "Yes. Please, yes."_

_Flashback|-|End_

* * *

><p>Kanda sneezed as Allen was serving dinner. Lavi had thought it would be a good idea to throw the salt and pepper shakers in the air, when one of them had a loose lid, and fell all over the table. Thank goodness the food wasn't on the table by then.<p>

"Lavi! Why do you always try and make my job even harder! I should ban you from the kitchen and dining room, especially after you tried making baked potatoes!" the maid started sweeping all of the wasted pepper off the table, and unto the ground.

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that you had to poke holes in it so it wouldn't explode!" he defended.

"You put them in the microwave with foil still on it! They caught on fire and exploded! Did you ever think to check with me before that?"

"At least you have your work cut out for you! After all, you are just a maid, and this **is** what you do for a living."

Kanda was still sneezing out ground up pepper as the two continued fighting with each other. This was going to be a long week. Then the door bell rang.

"I'll go get it!" Allen emptied out the dust pan into the trash on the way over to the door. "Hello Lenalee, just in time for dinner. You just missed Lavi covering the house in pepper."

"Really? Well, I was just here to drop off a package for Rei; she said to drop it off at Kaen's." She showed the box in her arms.

"I'll put it in Kaen's room then." Kanda placed it on the dresser then went back to the table, which was now clean.

"Yuu, you're going to love Allen's cooking! She's like a first class chef! It's especially awesome when she's so bored that she spends the entire day cooking everything you can think of! From sushi, all the way to tacos!" Lavi was bouncing in his seat just thinking about it.

"Call me Kanda, damn idiot." Kanda snarled. "And I know, I ate here yesterday. She's…as good as a beansprout can get."

Allen went red at the compliment, but was cautious around the hotheaded prince. "I'm not that good… I'll serve you guys; I still need to make dessert, any ideas?"

"We already know any dish you'll make is delicious anyways so…. MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE!" Lavi yelled as Allen placed down a plate of enchiladas, rice, and other Hispanic dishes. Allen was composed on the outside, but squealing on the inside. It had been awhile since she tried to make that.

"Enjoy dinner then, I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs anything."

"Can I help? I've never made, well anything besides soba…." Kanda muttered, and it was barely audible. Everyone stared; Lavi gave Lenalee an I-know-what's-going-on-I'll-tell-you-later look. Allen's face turned a slight tinge of pink, but that was probably from spending the entire evening in the kitchen.

"Uh sure, just be careful around the stove, your hair could catch on fire or get messy." She grabbed his hand, and tugged him into the kitchen, searching for an apron.

She got on a little step ladder to get to the cupboard above filled with dish towels. Kanda's heart jolted, his face turning fire truck red, hoping that it would go down, noticing how short her skirt really was as she was on the ladder. "Here we go, put this on unless you like stains on your wardrobe. Are you alright? You're not sick are you?"

"No." He shook his head, but the color rising even more as the girl bent down to take a closer look at his face.

"Stay still for a moment." She pressed her forehead against his, causing his eyes to widen. She just acted like it was normal, staring back at his dark eyes. Him staring at her grey ones with bits of blue within the depths.

"Well, you're a little warm, I'll check on you later on to make sure you're not ill. Here" She put the apron on him, and tied the back. "Now we're ready!"

Allen thought it was really cute how he wanted to help out, like a kid helping his mom cook. She had to show Kanda how to crack the eggs right since he kept smashing them into the table basically. One carton of eggs later, he finally got the hang of it, though most of the previous carton being all over the two.

She had to show him how to use the mixer too, that was a _**BIG**_ mistake. He kept pulling out too early, and chocolate flew everywhere. It was a blessing that the pie tin they had, already had crust molded onto it.

It was a couple of mixing bowls later that they finally got the filling done. It was the best batch yet. No eggs shells in it, the butter was actually melted, and most of it was still in the bowl. Kanda smiled a bit as the girl laughed at how dirty they were.

It took them four hours, but the wait was worth it, Lenalee and Lavi were at the dinner table playing with a deck of cards, and cracked up at the messy pair.

"I-IT hahaha! Sounded l-like there w-was a battle in there!" Lavi kept laughing and pointing. Lenalee was laugh so hard she was crying, and Allen joined along. Kanda's face twitched trying to keep from joining them.

"I'm surprised that someone such as yourself would want to learn how to cook. Especially since you're waited on hand and foot, it's an unnecessary skill for you." Lenalee said, cutting the pie and placing it on plates.

"It gets really annoying, that was the first time I was ever in the center of a kitchen and not kicked out. If my idiotic father could, he'd keep me in a cage for all eternity." Kanda wiped his face with a dishrag. "That was the most fun I've had in a long time."

"I know what you mean; you've seen my brother before, right? It took me forever just to convince him to let me deliver a package by myself. He'll probably kill me for being out late, but he trusts Allen to look out for me since she's the only other girl." Lenalee smiled and bit into the pie, her eyes widened.

"Is it that bad?" Kanda winced, expecting to hear a complaint.

"No, this is actually the best piece of pie I've had in a long time!" Lenalee started stuffing her face while Lavi went for the entire dessert itself.

"She's right!" The redhead ate from the pie tin.

"Save some for us! We didn't spend three hours just so you can eat it all!" Allen scolded. Lavi pouted and shared.

"I'm not one for desserts..." Kanda announced.

"Try it! After all, you did make it yourself!" Allen grabbed a fork with a piece of the pie on it. "Open your mouth and say ahh!"

Kanda was startled, but grudgingly consented. This was the only time he ever let anyone feed him. The Japanese man turned red, but nodded as he chewed. It wasn't that bad.

"We should do this again tomorrow! How long are you staying?" The white haired maid asked, as she scooped up another piece and offered it to him.

"Alleeennnnn! I've always asked you to feed me but you never have!" Lavi pouted.

"That's because you say I try to shove the spoon down your throat!" She responded, though, she did try that a lot….

"You do! Hey! We should go to the mall tomorrow! I can show Yuu all the hot chicks down there! Wanna join Lenalee?" Lavi looked at her.

"I'll see, but it will be a miracle if I can. Only if Allen can join."

"I have a lot of work tomorrow. It's laundry day, then the dishes, I have to dust, vacuum and then do some grocery shopping since we ran out of eggs." Allen was referring to the attempts at making pie.

"Take the day off! I'll pay you extra if you come! After all, it's much more fun as a group!" Lavi put his arms around Kanda (who shrugged it off) and Lenalee.

"Fine, but if I'm in trouble, we're playing hunt the rabbit." She smiled evilly.

"I hate that game!" Lavi cried.

Kanda was content; these were the first group of people who were his friends. The first friends he made outside of the castle, even Lavi. Lavi was an idiot, who flirted a lot but knew how to have fun, Lenalee seemed nice enough, and Allen, well, an awesome cook. He wanted to stick around just to see what else he might discover with this group of people together.

"Ugh, I'm going to clean up the kitchen, then get to bed." Allen walked off.

"I'll help; after all I did cause half the mess."

"No, trust me; it's a lot faster if I do it by myself. Tomorrow I'll show you how to clean if you want, but this mess is already large enough, and making it even worse is something that can wait. Thanks for the offer though." Allen gave one of her smiles that made Kanda's heart go a hundred miles per hour.

"I think you might be coming down with something though, are you sure your fine? It seems every time I turn around, your face becomes even redder, if that's possible." She felt his head with her hand this time. "I'll check on you later with some aspirin. You're not allergic to that, are you?" He shook his head no.

"Well I hope everyone has a good night's rest. See you tomorrow Lenalee. Lavi! Walk her home!" She yelled at the red head that was licking the pie tin, making the Chinese girl laugh. Allen smacked her face.

"There is no hope for you." She trudged off to the kitchen. It looked like a nuclear bomb went off and somebody never cleaned up the debris.

"If only this was easier to clean." She grabbed every house cleaning product and used it all. "How did chocolate get under the table and on the ceiling?"

Six hours later, she finally finished and it was two in the morning by then. She prayed that Lavi would sleep in today before she was woken up by him. Sadly, she knew already that he woke up at 7a.m.

The girl grabbed a cup of water and aspirin, walking up to Kaen's room, where Kanda was staying. She tiptoed in and placed it at the side of the bed. The man turned in his sleep, facing her.

_He's really pretty for a guy. Now I can see how I thought he was a "cute maid girl". _She chuckled at her thoughts. His hair was down, some of it covering his face. She moved his bangs to the side, hoping he wouldn't wake up.

She went to her own quarters, stealthily shutting the door, making sure nothing creaked as she was moving into the hallway. Then she went to check on the redhead to make sure he didn't fall asleep on the couch again.

"Really? Do I always have to lead you upstairs? A maid's work is never done I guess." Lavi was half awake, and letting Allen lead him up the stairs like a sheep. She tucked him in and gave him the pink stuffed rabbit he's had ever since she first worked here.

Allen smiled as he held the old thing closer and snuggled it. The way it looked was cute and kind of creepy at the same time that a man was still sleeping with a stuffed animal. She shut off the lights in the house, and was finally able to sleep, at 2:45a.m.

* * *

><p><span>Omake<span>

_Flashback|-|Begin_

"_Hey! Maid, go make us some dinner!" Lavi yelled at the girl. She had barely just started working, and for some reason, he thought it was so fun to pick or flirt on her. In his mind, she was just another object of his to control. Kaen scolded his twin many times to no avail. You had to beat it in with a jackhammer before the message became clear to him._

_Allen stomped into the kitchen, hating her job more than anything in the world right now. If only she could make enough money to not have to do this for a living, and get a decent job._

_The twins were having a screaming match because apparently Lavi accidently broke the CD that Kaen's girlfriend had given him. It was horrible, and seemed like it would never end._

"_Chill, it's just a CD, you can get another one, I'll even buy you a new one!" Lavi put up his hands, making sure his brother couldn't smack him._

"_You don't get it! It had sentimental value! I never get to see my girlfriend, and when she sends me something, you destroyed it! How would you like it if I destroyed something that was your most prized possession?"_

_Kaen got an idea, it was one of his weakest moments, but he stooped down to his twin's level. He ran into Lavi's room and grabbed the pink rabbit in there. Lavi's eyes widened._

"_What are you doing! You know grandpa gave that to me before he left to travel the world!" Lavi screamed, and near tears._

"_This is how it felt when you destroyed my CD!" Kaen took the rabbit and ripped it's head and limbs off, stuffing going everywhere. Lavi nearly attacked his brother when Allen pulled him back._

"_BOTH OF YOU QUIT IT! Kaen, you know Lavi did this on accident, if he did it on purpose, wouldn't he wave it in front of your face. And Lavi! You should've asked before taking your brother's stuff! Both of you to your rooms before the master of this house comes back!" She screamed. The pair listened, Lavi shaking at the loss of his rabbit, and holding what was left of it._

"_Come here Lavi." Allen convinced him to go with her. They went to the spare room where a sewing machine was, and she took the scraps of the stuffed animal. Lavi sulked in the corner, knowing that it would be impossible to fix it. An hour later, and his rabbit looked brand new. She stitched it up pretty well._

"_H-how did….w-where did you" He was cut off._

"_I'm a maid; I'm suppose to know how to sew. It was hard to put all the stuffing back it, and put the shredded cotton together, but it worked." She smiled holding the object. Lavi snatched it and hugged it._

"_Thank you so much!" He grabbed the young maid and swung her in the air. "Thank you Allen." That was the first time he called her by her name, and not just "maid"._

* * *

><p><strong>Exile: O_O I think we're seeing some KandaxAllenxLavi triangle here!<strong>

**Review?**


	4. Enraged

Enraged

When Kanda woke up the next morning, the very first things that he noticed were his splitting migraine and the aspirin next to his bed. Grabbing the water and the pill hastily, he drank it, grateful to whoever had been considerate enough to put it there. The next thing that he observed was that he wasn't in the palace. With an out-of-character leap of joy, the prince tumbled out of Kaen's bed and flung open the window, drinking in the sight of the village.

"I'm free." he whispered to himself, amazed. "Free." It was all he could do to stop himself from yelling the word out into the morning sky.

A knock on the door made him spin on his heel and open it with a weird grimace, as he was struggling to not reveal his wide, uncharacteristic grin.

"Morning, Kanda." Allen greeted him, trying not to show her confusion at the battle of expressions that he was showing. "Breakfast is already ready. And I need to go wake up Lavi, so just go downstairs." with that, the maid walked off to the room which the redhead inhabited.

Kanda combed his fingers through his hair, throwing on a t-shirt and pants, both black. He got ready for the day, wiping the sleep from his eye, and oddly enough, there was actually a light in his eyes that wasn't normally there. Probably from being free, or awakened by Allen first thing in the morning, most likely both.

"Lavi! Hurry up and get downstairs! Breakfast is ready, and you know I'll eat your serving if you don't!" The maid opened the door and the redhead was only in a pair of jeans.

"Do you ever knock?" He smirked evilly at her as her face was redder than his hair. He slipped on a t-shirt. Her jaw hit the floor, turned around, then smacked into the wall. She was flustered while she descended down into the kitchen.

She put out the spread for breakfast, well, what was left in the kitchen that she and Kanda hadn't wasted. There were hash-browns, bacon, biscuits and gravy, cereal, orange juice, and milk.

No matter how hard she tried the incident that occurred not that long ago kept popping up in her head. _I knew he worked out, I just didn't know that much_. She shook her thoughts as the doorbell rang, and Lenalee was at the door, noticing how out of it the young maid was.

"Tell me what happened!" Lenalee was squeezing the poor girl.

"N-nothing. If you're hungry, breakfast is out on the table." Allen bowed her head, rushed passed Kanda, heading straight into her living quarters, shutting the door.

When everyone, except Allen were at the table, they were wondering what was up with the look on Lavi's face. His eyes had a glint of mischief.

"I can't wait to go to the mall; I haven't been out there in such a long time." Lenalee smiled and took a sip out of her orange juice. "I brought a change of clothes for Allen since I know she only has her work clothes and pajamas. I'm going to help her get ready."

Kanda and Lavi sat in awkward silence, only the sounds of them chewing were heard.

"So what type of stores do you like to go to?" Lavi tried to get some form of communication started. Kanda only grunted.

"I've never been to a store." He mumbled.

"Are you serious? Well fret not, for you are friends with the amazing Lavi! I shall guide you through out the place! I'll even show you some spots where all the girls are at." He started ranting.

Meanwhile, inside the maid's room, Lenalee was trying to get Allen out of the closet to talk to her. Even though the door was cheaply made, it held up pretty well, especially at how determined the Chinese girl was to knock it down. The banging and creaking got louder, and sounded harsher. How did Kanda and Lavi not hear it?

"Come on Allen, I promise I won't tell! Anyways, you're coming to the mall with us today, remember? I also have an outfit here for you, that way you won't have to wear that short maid's dress." The Chinese girl was finally able to get the door and pulled Allen out. Lenalee sighed.

"Fine, at least get dressed then." She handed the white-haired girl a pair of shorts, a gray tank top, and flip flops.

"Are you kidding? I'm practically albino! I'll burn! I'll look like a lobster because of the sun!" Allen complained.

"Use some sunblock then."

"It doesn't work! I've put on 110 SPF and I still got sunburned, that's how pale I am!"

"...It's not that bad outside either..." She gave the maid an incredulous look.

"What?"

"110 SPF? There's no way you should've gotten burned."

"Well, somehow I magically did!" Allen crossed her arms.

"Well, I have a pair of skinny jeans you can wear instead of shorts, I only brought one shirt, and that was the tank top." She stated.

"Is there any chance I can ditch today?" The maid already knew the answer.

"No."

Lenalee had the girl change quickly, then added some light make up and fixed her hair.

"Ouch! Stop yanking the brush so hard! It hurts!" The younger girl pouted, tears threatening to come out of her eyes.

"There I'm done combing it out. Don't you ever get out the tangles?" She pushed Allen in front of a mirror. She only put the white hair in a simple French braid, bringing back her bangs with a couple of hair clips.

"No, I just put it aside so it doesn't mess up my work." She let out a sigh and straightened herself out.

"Lavi! Kanda! We're ready to go!" Lenalee shouted down the hall. As soon as Allen stepped out, Lavi tackled her into a hug.

"I didn't know you cleaned up so well! You're a diamond in the rough!" Lavi continued squeezing her.

"You jerk!" Allen took offense to the comments.

Everyone decided to take public transportation (Allen wanted to stay out of the sun as much as possible). The group tried to get enough seats for them, but two of them had to still stand, and that was Allen and Kanda.

"Allen, here, you can take my seat." Lavi offered.

"No thanks, I'm fine standing."

"I insist. Take the seat." He pursued her.

"I happen to like standing." She continued. Lavi was getting annoyed, and just pulled the girl onto his lap, arms around her waist. Kanda's reflex was to pull her back, but he resisted against it.

"Lavi! Let me go! This isn't appropriate!" She was getting flustered.

"You walking in on me while I was changing wasn't appropriate!" Lavi pointed out while practically yelled. Everyone on the bus was watching the pair, Allen still struggling and getting redder by the minute. Finally, their stop came, and she dashed off the bus, Lenalee in tow.

"Strike!" Lavi fist pumped into the air. Kanda had the strongest urge just to punch his face out, but sadly, the redhead was his guide.

Girls started flocking around them instantly, and batting their eyelashes at the two guys. Kanda nearly relived the kitchen incident at the castle all over again, they thought he was a girl at first. He cursed his feminine face more than anything.

Lavi took him to cell phone accessory carts, music stores, anywhere he could find girls. He was trying to "introduce" Kanda to the "fish in the sea" as he put it. Kanda barley glanced at any of the girls. Most of them had too much make up to where they look like clowns, or smelled like they fell into a field of flowers. The enhanced smell was too much for him

Right when he was about to explode, Lavi took them to a food court since he was hungry. It was as if he could sense when Kanda was at his limits. When Lavi ate, it was the only time he was ever silent, and Kanda enjoyed every moment of peace he could get.

Roles were now reversed, and Lenalee started leading Allen around since she had a bad sense of direction. There were so many stores, even ones that had imports from different countries. Lenalee went shopping the other day and raided everything in the mall the week before. Today, Allen would be her doll to dress up.

Lenalee paid for her to get a manicure and pedicure. It took forever since her nails were dirty and chipped from always cleaning. She had so many calluses on her hands, as much as a swordsman.

"Allen, I know this great Indian store that has such beautiful traditional saris!" Lenalee started grabbing the garments and helping the girl wrap it onto her. Allen had one stringed with gold coins that jingled, the color of the fabric was gradient, going from yellow, to orange, and finally red.

"That looks so pretty on you!" Lenalee gushed. The maid was still trying to hide herself into the fabric. Lenalee had Allen go to many more stores. So far the maid had tried on bikini's, halter tops, mini-skirts, strapless dresses, stilettos, backless, etc.

"Next store! Time for kimonos!" the Chinese girl continued on. Kanda and Lavi saw them pass by there. Kanda didn't eat much for breakfast, and wanted to get soba there, even though it was made to give you a heart attack later on.

"Let's go see what the girls are doing!" Lavi dragged Kanda by the pony tail. They went into the store, towards the back where the dressing rooms were.

"Hey guys! I'm just waiting for Allen to come out, want to wait with me?" Lenalee looked up at the two. Both nodded their heads.

"Lenalee! I don't like this one. It's really tight on my chest and waist! I can barely breathe!" Allen began to complain. She walked out in the kimono styled dress. It was black, lined with gold thread. Dragons of light blue were on it, along with some sakura blossoms that were gray. Two long slits were up to mid thigh. It was nearly skin tight, squeezing around her chest an making it look like she had a lot more in that area. Around her waist, it gave her even more figure than usual.

Lavi went up to a clerk and purchased the dress for her, Lenalee took back her clothes she lent Allen just so the maid would have to wear it. She wouldn't have accepted it if he offered, but since it was already bought for her, it'd be even more rude to turn the gift down.

"Thank you Lavi." she said. Allen's face was red and she was uncomfortable in the dress she was wearing. It got worse on the way to the park near the mall that had a beautiful lake nearby. Throughout the mall, Lavi was cracking jokes, sending winks, and attempting to wrap his arm around her shoulders or waist.

Kanda on the other hand was opening doors, pointing out all sorts of things (since he's never been to the mall), and holding her hand (mostly to pull her away from Lavi). Lenalee, though she didn't get much attention from anyone, was okay with it. She thought it was so cute how the three were going back and forth.

In the park there was a little dock near the lake, a playground, all sorts of vendors out there. There was even a fried ice cream stand, funnel cake, popsicle/ice cream carts, and other food stand assortments. Allen got a bunch of mitarashi dango, funnel cake, and a popsicle. Lenalee and Lavi settled for popsicles, and Kanda didn't like sweets that much.

It was a beautiful day to be outside overall, it was nice and sunny, no clouds in the sky, and a breeze that made it bearable. So far it looked like Allen hadn't gotten sunburned. The breeze carried around an assortment of music from the performers in the park.

Children were playing, clapping, laughing, and running around in circles. Some people were even fishing in the lake. The sun glistening off the lake was a sight to behold. The four decided to sit on the edge of the dock. Allen kicked off her shoes, dipping her feet into the water.

"Hey Allen, you want to try my ice cream? Here, have some!" Lavi held a spoonful of ice cream in front of her. He just smiled, eyes shut and put the spoon in her mouth.

"Thanks." She responded. Allen saw something on the other side of the dock. It was a flash of red, and the only redheads she knew were Lavi, Kaen, and Master Cross.

"Is that Kaen over there?" She asked, pointing in the direction. Everyone looked in the direction of her hand, about to confirm what she said until an "accident" occurred. Kanda's eyes widened and he tripped while walking away from the dock.

Said man crashed into the maid, and they went tumbling into the water.

Kanda, at this moment, was even more of an idiot. He couldn't swim, apparently Tiedoll thought that water was too dangerous for his son. That he could drown or get cramps, even somehow get poisoned by chlorine or something. The closest he'd ever been to a pool was his bath tub.

Lavi threw a lifesaver at him. Kanda put it on Allen since her dress was making it impossible to swim. She was coughing up enough water to fill up the lake and then some. Though he didn't know how to swim, he held onto the lifesaver around her, and started kicking towards land.

Allen was shaking like a wet chihuahua, freezing from the water, it must have been at least 50 degrees in the water. Kanda patted her back, getting the rest of the water out. She was still shaking even after she was done. He held her close, trying to keep her some what warm, even though he was also soaked.

"Kanda! Allen! Are you alright!" the shouts of their friends coming closer.

"Allen, you're freezing, Lavi and I are going to go find some clothes for you guys. We'll be back as soon as possible!" She headed back towards the mall, redhead proceeding along side her.

"Allen?" Kanda whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that I-"

"Thank you for saving me." She cut him off and smiled. "I'm just really cold and tired." She yawned, shutting her eyes slightly. "Lenalee had me in and out of outfits for four hours straight."

"The damn rabbit took me any place there was a girl."

"Don't worry, Lenalee does the same thing for me to meet guys. They mean well, I just wish they stopped caring so much." She yawned again and started dozing off. She leaned her head in the crook of his neck, she was too tired to care that she was in his lap, she'd probably regret it later and be embarrassed.

After thirty minutes of sleeping, Lavi and Lenalee finally came back with clothes. Lavi saw where Allen was at, and sent a glare with his eye towards Kanda, who didn't notice it. Allen changed fast into jeans and a graphic tee, waiting with the others for Kanda.

"Why did you complain about sitting in my lap earlier! You slept on Kanda!" Lavi pouted at the girl.

"I was tired and didn't care. Besides, you did that on purpose in front of so many people!" She retorted.

"You still haven't told me what happened. So you walked in on Lavi naked?" Lenalee remembered the piece of conversation she heard on the bus. Allen flushed, Lavi smiled, Lenalee had a look of shock on her face. Kanda was listening on the other side of the wall, and punched it. Luckily the sound went unheard by the trio.

"N-no! Nothing like that!" Allen waved her hands in front of her in defense.

"She's telling the truth, I just didn't have a shirt on." Lavi chuckled. "It was all on accident."

Allen let out a breath of relief, finally glad that it was straightened out. Kanda chose that moment to walk out and the group ended their outing. The pair that fell into the lake was thankful for the nice warm clothes.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to go home. I smell like the lake and could really use a shower." Allen felt guilty wanting to end the day early, especially since it was Kanda's first time being at the mall. All looked at Lavi since it was his decision.

"Sure, no problem." Lavi said, linking arms with her and heading towards the bus stop looking at the times. Allen didn't mind, not really noticing since she was being dragged, having the soles of her shoes worn out. Or at least, what was left of them.

"Should be there in about fifteen minutes." Allen read. As soon as the bus came, all finally got a seat to sit in. Lenalee started showing pictures of Allen in many outfits, the girl started fidgeting, placing her head in her hands. _I swear this is the most embarrasing day of my life!_ She thought to herself over and over.

"Did you see her manicure and pedicure? I recommended that she get the French tips, they look good on her, don't they!" It was mostly Lavi and Lenalee talking to each other on the bus. Kanda offered her nothing but silence, and Allen was grateful. At this moment, she really didn't want to talk.

"Hey, Kanda, have you ever been to the amusement park?" Lenalee asked. "I mean, I can understand if you've never been to the mall, but everyone's been to the amusement park!"

Kanda hesitated before answering.

"No. I told you guys; I've never been outside the castle until Rei snuck me out." Everyone on the bus gasped loudly, turning to stare at Kanda with pity. "Hey! Don't look at me like that!"

Lavi's eyes grew wide. "Yuu-chan, you're so deprived! That's it; after Allen washes up, we're going to the amusement park!" They got home, Kanda mumbling and grumbling about just wanting to stay home and be alone and not do anything for a while, but in the end when Allen got out of the shower he was reluctantly dragged back to the bus stop as the bus made the journey to the amusement park.

"We're hereee!" Lavi hopped off the bus, followed by the rest, and the moment Kanda looked in front-

BAM.

He was promptly greeted by a spectrum of bright, annoying colours, filling up the area in front of him. Rubbing his eyes, he looked behind him, at the roads – normal, and then he turned around again,

BAM.

Every time he seemed to look from something perfectly normal in colour to that hideously painful thing of an amusement park, the colours seemed to smack him right in the forehead, annoying him like fat little hyperactive toddlers running around public places with ice cream dripping from their hands…

Whaddya know. There they were, so now along with this nauseous rainbow, there were a bunch of fat hyperactive toddlers squealing like fat pigs and trailing ice cream EVERYWHERE who would CONSTANTLY be ANNOYING HIM TO NO END.

His other companions took no notice of them, and started excitedly planning where to go and what to do.

Didn't they feel his pain? Did they not find this place an aesthetical atrocity? Did these flabby, pudgy kids not have any parents or something? Kanda swore he was going to kill them ALL, with his trusty Mugen, when he realized…

Damn. He'd left it at Allen's house.

He proceeded to make an extreme effort to stop his mumbled curses from turning into screamed vulgarities, but with each passing second in this hellhole felt like he was going to puke at the thought and sight of this vexing supposedly happy nightmare when he felt a hand over his.

Allen tilted her head to the side and smilingly looked over, as she continued to hold on to Kanda's hand. "Kanda? You don't look very comfortable, is anything wrong?"

At once, Kanda's frustration disappeared into thin air as he felt her warm gaze on him and her hand in his-

Hastily, he shook his head rapidly, being temporarily mute.

Soon he regained his voice, "I-I'm fine, don't worry about me," he swallowed, his mind solely revolving around the fact that Allen's hand was still wrapped around his, and that they were standing side by side. When did he become so vulnerable? This whole love business was turning him into a babbling idiot.

He turned to look at her. "That's good then," she smiled, pulling him behind her as they ran to catch up with the rest.

"Oh, there you are, Allen! And Kanda." Lenalee said, looking up from the park map. "We were thinking of going to check out the awesome stuff first, like the roller-coasters, then leaving the slower rides to later to relax or something."

"Hey, that sounds good," Allen replied as she let go of Kanda's hand.

The prince mentally sighed, as he followed the chirpy bunch to wherever they were going. What were roller-coasters, anyway? All he knew about coasters were that they were used to protect cups from tables, or something.

After a while of walking, Lavi stopped at a sign boldly proclaiming the words 'THE TWISTER!'

"We're here!" he yelled, hopping from one foot to another. "LET'S GO!"

They lined up for the ride, Kanda not knowing what to expect and not even knowing what he was in for, while Lenalee and Lavi busy enthused about how this was the best ride in the park. Foolishly, he decided to trust in their better judgement that it would be a good ride.

Finally, it came to the end of the queue, and they went to sit in some train-like thing with seats.

Some sort of heavy contraption lowered, strapping them to their chairs, and there were three sharp beeps, before they started moving.

Suddenly, Kanda realized what they were riding, and what he was in for. Gulping, he looked at the metal track in front of him, complete with steep slopes, and loops that went all the way 360 degrees.

Surely they wouldn't be going on those loops, Kanda gulped. Doesn't that defy all the laws of gravity or something? They'd surely fall out. Which would be too risky for the amusement park to do.

Then he realized the purpose of the things strapping him to the seats.

By the time he started panicking, the roller coaster was gaining momentum, and it was definitely way too late to back out. It started going faster… and faster… and faster…

The roller-coaster kept going up and down, and sideways, and all around, and somehow what? they were up in the air, upside down, on the loops. It was all so fast that he couldn't even comprehend what was going on, just that his stomach kept lurching and churning and bile seemed to be rising to his throat and his eyes had to reduce to a watery squint due to the speed they were going at.

It came to a stop, somewhere between a minute and three hours, but when they all finally stumbled off, he realized, hey, I quite like this ride.

Something gave him thrills from being rapidly swung in all directions, which seemed weird, but nearly everyone else seemed to feel that way, so!

In a dizzy and druken-like stupor, he fell forward, unfortunately bringing Allen down in the process.

"Eeek!" she screamed, as they went crashing to the ground.

The screams attracted the unwanted attention from the other people walking by, and Allen was frozen in shock for a while as blood rose to Kanda's cheeks in embarrassment. Hastily, he got up from the ground, and offered his hand to Allen with a blush still evident on his face. But his hand was pushed away by Lavi as he rushed to the maid's side,

"ALLEN! Are you okay?" Slightly menacingly, he shot Kanda a glare as he pulled her up and dragged her away from the scene.

Lenalee scratched her head a little, looking over at the departing duo and back at Kanda. "Hey, you okay? I'm not very sure what happened to Lavi. He was kind of acting like a bitch back there."

"Yeah, I guess," he grunted, still rather confused. And still dizzy from the ride. "So what are we going to do now?"

"I informed Lavi when we were deciding where to go to meet at the ice cream parlour at 4 in case we got split up. So meanwhile, I think it's better if we leave them alone."

Silently, he nodded his consent.

"Okay, I know this is kinda crazy for you to be in public after spending so much time cooped up there." Lenalee sighed and smiled at him. "Honestly, I think you're a pretty nice guy."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I mean, you're quiet and stuff, but you're cool."

"Uh... thanks, then."

There was a short silence between them.

"Hey, uh, Lenalee,"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still want to ride anything else? I kinda feel like sitting down for a while."

She chuckled. "Not so used to all this high speed stuff?"

"Kind of. Although that roller-coaster was pretty fun."

"Sure then! Why not we go over to the ice cream shop first? Then I can interro- get to know you better, yeah?" slyly, she winked at him, and went skipping off in one direction, Kanda in tow.

It wasn't very long before they reached the parlour, it being nearer to the roller-coasters so that paralyzed or scared-to-death people could go and relax. After buying a scoop each and sitting down at the booth, they spent a moment to eat up their ice creams (Kanda thought it was the best thing he tasted ever, he began fantasizing about a Allen-flavoured ice cream kiss...)

"So, Kanda. When was the first time you went out of the castle, anyway?"

"Just days ago. I made a deal with Rei. I think I saw Allen on the way to town."

"Ahh. What do you think of out here, anyway?"

"It's a lot bigger than I thought the world was."

Lenalee laughed, nearly spitting out her ice cream. "That's for sure! Anything you like in particular so far?"

"The openess. Ice cream. Roller-coasters."

"Here's to the childhood you never had then!" Lenalee raised the ice cream cone, laughing even more. She didn't know whether to laugh at his answer or cry at his deprived-ness, "So anything you've experienced that's not been very pleasant yet?"

"Just now? Altogether it's been, uh, nice, so far."

"That's good. So what do you think about Allen?"

"Wait, what?"

"Don't tell me you're oblivious. I know you have something for Allen, don't you? Which is fine. I think she's pretty into you too."

"Really?"

"It's kinda cute. You're both good for each other."

"Really?"

"Oh boy do you look earnest. It's perfectly fine to be in love, Kanda, that's basically what the world is all about."

"That sounds cheesy."

"Yes it is, but oh, whatever! Love is a pretty cool thing, yeah?"

"..." Kanda looked down. "...no comment."

They sat there for a bit, eating their ice cream in silence. Kanda had gotten green tea flavor, and it appeared the Lenalee was a major chocoholic. Kanda was enjoying the peace and quiet when ALL OF A SUDDEN, he heard an unmistakeably familiar high-pitched voice. "MY DARLING LENALEE!" A man cried. The man himself didn't look weird, it was the fact that he was perched atop a giant robot that Kanda had no doubt could pulverize the ice cream parlor they were at. Lenalee turned her head and saw the man, and the chocolate ice cream cone disappeared from her hands and was promptly gobbled up.

"Kanda, this is Komui." She introduced as if there wasn't a giant robot charging their way. "He's my brother." Kanda stared at the giant four-legged robot that had people screaming and diving for cover. His hand went to his side for Mugen, but he left it at Allen's house, darnit!

Lenalee stood up, still completely calm, lifted up her feet, and appeared to press the back of her heels. "Kanda, no offense, but without Mugen I don't you can do any damage to one of my brother's robots." Kanda nearly snorted if Rei hadn't whacked him repeatedly on the head every time he used to.

"Don't you remember who my bodyguard is?" he sneered, dropping into a fighting position and sprinting forward. One of the many rules the mercenary had taught him was: _Beat up the enemy first, save people second, freak out later._ Another one was _Don't display your emotions._

Lenalee was surprised when Kanda dashed forward towards her brother's insane robot and leapt directly in front of it. The Komurin (as Komui liked to call him robots) promptly focused its electronic eye on Kanda. She paled. _I'm completely screwed if Brother kills him!_

"You filthy octopus! Sitting with my darling Lenalee and eating ice cream with her!" Komui cried insanely, pointing a finger at Kanda, who nearly rolled his eyes. "Komurin, kill the octopus!"

_No matter the enemy, a neck is a neck._

The prince leapt everywhere, confusing the robot and making it spin around in all directions in order to properly target him. The rapid movements left it dazed, and Kanda took the opportunity to, as he put it, dismantle the robot.

However, ater kicking the back of the robot's neck several times, the 'bot spun around, facing Kanda and fixing the eye on him. _Why did I leave Mugen at Allen's house?_

"Idiot nii-san!" Lenalee chided, her Dark Boots fully activated as she vaulted into the sky, sunlight shining of the boots that she wore. Kanda stared at the supposedly harmless shoes, which had a plethora of blades sticking out from the sides and several spikes at the bottom of the sole. Kanda escaped the robot the moment the younger Lee crashed into the head, sending debris everywhere.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – The Rules<strong>

These are the rules which the prince's bodyguard drilled into him in order to be a better fighter and prince.

1 – No killing, maiming, or damaging any property unless you get Rei's permission first

2 – Carry Mugen at all times

3 – Don't display your emotions so then your enemies have less advantage over you.

4 – Beat up enemies first, save people second, freak out later.

5 – Do not, I repeat, DO NOT develop a martyr complex.

6 – Do not invoke any cliché tropes while fighting.

7 - #6 means don't declare attacks like a stupid idiot.

8- If you're going to do something illegal, make sure you don't get caught

9 – learn how to cook. When you're on the road, cook for yourself to prevent someone poisoning you!

10 – Everything can be a weapon, including things like nutcrackers

11 – Do not underestimate women. Do not underestimate the pain of a woman's shoes.

12 – Do not make any lewd comment or Rei will murder you in cold blood.

14 – always skip the number 13.

15 – When you want to cuss someone out, just smile, nod, and walk away.

16 – When beating up people, put a bag over their head so they can't tell you're the one beating them up.

17 – Rei is entitled to drilling new rules in your head at all times.

18 – Do not forget the Rules.

* * *

><p><strong>Exile: We have some good reasons why we haven't updated for a while. It's testing month for all of us, and Lex and I are in bad family situations at the moment. Also, it appears that when they sent the doc to me...they forgot to insert author's notes. *sweatdrop* As always, we don't own. <strong>

**Also...my family situation is really extremely stressful, leading Lex and Joy to take up the bulk of typing while I moped, worked, and worried. All I did was a transition between their parts (Lex did the mall, Joy the park) and the Omake. **

**By the way, if you're slightly irritated at this chapter's ending, blame Word for repeatedly crashing on me. Don't worry, we shall pick it up in the next chapter.**

**Us three are not going to update this story until late June so then school will end. We WILL keep working on the story, but we won't be posting them until June. So don't worry.**

**And thank you to everyone who reviews and favourited and alerted this!**

**So...review? (They're really encouraging ^_^)**


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